204 OF THE NECTARY 



Aconitum, f. 174, like a pair of little birds, which are 

 manifestly formed only to hold the honey, and not 

 situated nor constructed so as to perform the proper 

 functions of petals ; but on the other hand Ranun- 

 culus, Engl. Bot. t. 100, 515 and 516, one of the 

 same natural order, has evident calyx and petals, 

 which latter have a honey-bearing pore in their claw, 

 evincing their identity with the less petal-like Nectaries 

 just described. Other instances indeed of Nectaries 

 in the claws of petals are found in the Crown Imperial 

 and Lily ; which only confirms more strongly the com- 

 pendious construction of the Lily tribe, the leaves 

 of their flowers in these examples being Calyx, Petals 

 and Nectaries all in one. 



The most indubitable of all Nectaries, as actually 

 secreting honey, are those of a glandular kind. In 

 the natural order of Cruciform plants, composing the 

 Linnaean class Tetradynamia, these are generally four 

 green glands at the base of the Stamens. See Den- 

 taria, EngL Bot. t. 309, Sisymbrium, t. 525, and 

 Brasska, t. 637 > In Saliv, t. 1488, and Geranium, 

 t. 322, 75, &c., similar glands are observable ; whilst 

 in Pelargonium, the African Geranium, the Nectary 

 is a tube running down one side of the flower-stalk. 



The elegant Parnassia, t. 82, of which we are 

 now acquainted with two new American species, has 

 a most elaborate apparatus called by Linnaeus Nectaries, 

 /! 175, but which the cautious Jussieu names Scales 

 only. Linnaeus usually called every supernumerary 



