100 VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY. 



nary language, to very different phenomena. Organ- 

 ography instructs us to class them, to compare them 

 with natural phenomena, and to refer them to known 

 analogies ; but it will be for Physiology to determine, 

 if possible, the causes of these different metamorphoses, 

 which are less unworthy than has been thought of the 

 observations of the Botanist, since they are intimately 

 connected with the study of the organic symmetry of 

 plants. 



Section XI. 



Of the Inequality of Parts in a Floral Verticil; or of 

 Irregular Flowers. 



The different verticils which compose a flower, may 

 be, with regard to one another, of very unequal size : 

 some may even be entirely wanting, without the flower 

 ceasing to be regular ; for each of its portions, taken 

 from the centre to the circumference, resembles the 

 others ; but the name of Irregular is given to flowers 

 in which one or more parts of a verticil are different 

 from the others in size, form, direction, situation, or de- 

 gree of cohesion. 



In order to form a just idea of the symmetry of 

 flowers, we must always endeavour to refer irregular 

 ones to regular types, from which they seem to be degene- 

 rations. Each family appears to have a regular type, 

 which is its natural state, and from which they differ, 

 either accidentally or constantly, from different causes. 

 When these causes result from foreign influences on the 



