SECT. IV. THE INFLORESCENCE. 145 



SUBSECTION XI. 



The Catkin. The catkin (PLV. Fig. 11.) is aDescrip- 

 mode of inflorescence consisting of an assemblage 

 of flowers generally incomplete, whose calyx is a 

 small scale-like substance attaching them to a com- 

 mon and elongated receptacle, as in a close and 

 condensed spike. It is exemplified in the very 

 familiar cases of the groups of barren flowers pro- 

 duced by the Hazel and Walnut. The catkin was Incorrect- 

 indeed considered by Linnaeus as being altogether //befng'' 

 a species of calyx, and accordingly arranged as such. a cal y x - 

 But this arrangement is obviously incorrect, unless 

 stamens and pistils are to be considered as forming 

 parts of the calyx, which cannot be the case ; be- 

 cause stamens or pistils always form part of the 

 catkin. Dr. Smith, however, still arranges the cat- 

 kin under the head of calyx, and yet when he comes 

 to describe it he calls it " an aggregate flower,"* 

 which entirely overthrows the notion of its being a 

 calyx, and even contradicts his own arrangement. 

 I am not aware of any good reason why the catkin 

 should not be regarded as a peculiar mode of in- 

 florescence, as botanists for the most part do now 

 regard it. For it is no 'objection to this view of the 

 subject to say, that the scale-like calyx adheres so 

 firmly to the common receptacle as to seem a part 

 of it; because there are, in all modes of inflores- 



* Smith's Introduction, p. 284. 

 VOL. I. L 



