

P1NGUIGULA. 195 



means that clusters of some twenty or thirty stars may be 

 seen on the surface of a square yard of boggy ground, quite 

 to its mind ; but its real glory is in harder life, in the crannies 

 of well-wetted rock. 



3. What I have called ' stars ' are irregular clusters of ap- 

 proximately, or tentatively, five aloeine ground leaves, of very 

 pale green, they may be six or seven, or more, but always 

 run into a rudely pentagonal arrangement, essentially first 

 trine, with two succeeding above. Taken as a whole the plant 

 is really a main link between violets and Droseras ; but the 

 flower has much more violet than Drosera in the make of it, 

 spurred, and fiue-petaled,* and held down by the top of its 

 bending stalk as a violet is ; only its upper two petals are not 

 reverted the calyx, of a dark soppy green, holding them 

 down, with its three front sepals set exactly like a strong 



* When I have the chance, and the time, to submit the proofs of 

 ' Proserpina ' to friends who know more of Botany than I, or have kind- 

 ness enough to ascertain debateable things for me, I mean in future to 

 do so, using the letter A to signify Amicus, generally; with acknowl- 

 edgment by name, when it is permitted, of especial help or correction. 

 Note first of this kind : I find here on this word, 'five-petaled,' as ap- 

 plied to Pinguicula, " Qy. two-lipped? it is monopetalous, and mono- 

 sepalous, the calyx and corolla being each all in one piece." 



Yes ; and I am glad to have the observation inserted. But my term, 

 'five-petaled,' must stand. For the question with me is always first, 

 not how the petals are connected, but how many they are. Also I have 

 accepted the term petal but never the word lip as applied to flowers. 

 The generic term * Labiatse ' is cancelled in 'Proserpina,' ' Vestales* 

 being substituted ; and these flowers, when I come to examine them, 

 are to be described, not as divided into two lips, but into hood, apron, 

 and side-pockets Farther, the depth to which either calyx or corolla 

 is divided, and the firmness with which the petals are attached to the 

 torus, may, indeed, often be an important part of the plant's description, 

 but ought not to be elements in its definition. Three petaled and three- 

 sepaled, four-petaled and four-sepaled, five-petaled and five-sepaled, 

 etc. , etc. , are essential with me, primal elements of definition ; next, 

 whether resolute or stellar in their connection ; next, whether round or 

 pointed, etc. Fancy, for instance, the fatality to a rose of pointing its 

 petals, and to a lily, of rounding them ! But how deep cut, or how 

 hard holding, is quite a minor question. 



Farther, that all plants are petaled and sepaled, and never mere cup 

 in saucers, is a great fact, not to be dwelt on in a note. 



