ELEMENTS OF STRUCTURAL BOTANY. 15 



stem is only a))parent. lu reality there is a stem, but 

 it is so short as to be almost iuclistiuguishablo. 



The leaves of the Hepatica are of course all radical. 

 They will also be found to be net-reined. 



19. The Flowers of the Hepatica are all upon long 

 peduncles, which, like the leaves, appear to spring from 

 the root. Naked peduncles of this kind, rising from 

 the ground or near it, arc called scapes. The flower- 

 stalks of the Tulip and the Dandelion furnish other 

 familiar examples. 



Let us now proceed to examine the flower itself. 

 Just beneath the coloured leaves there are three leaf- 

 lets, which you will be almost certain to regard, at first 

 sight, as sepals, forming a calyx. It \^ill not be diffi- 

 cult, however, to convince you that this conclusion 

 would be incorrect. If, with the aid of your needle, 

 you turn back these leaflets, you will readily discover, 

 between them and the coloured portion of 

 the flower, a venj sh\>rt bit of stem (Fig. 20), 

 the upper end of which is the receptacle. 

 As these leaflets, then, are on the peduncle, 

 hehnc the receptacle, they cannot be sepals. 

 They are simply small foliage leaves, to which, as they 

 are found beside the flower, the name hracts is given. 

 Our flower, then, is apparently without a calyx, and in 

 this respect is diff'erent from the Buttercup. The whole 

 four parts of the flower not being present, it is said to 

 be incomplete. 



20. It may be explained iiere that there is an under- 

 standing among botanists, that if the calyx and corolla 

 are not both present it is always the corolla wliich is 

 wanting, and so it happens that the coloured part of 

 the flower under consideration, though resembling a 



