232 THE RECEPTACLE. 



forms the bur, as in Arctium Lappa, EngL Bof. 

 t. 1228 ; sometimes hooks encompass the fruit itself, 

 as in Xanthium, and some species of Galitwn, parti- 

 cularly G. Aparine, t. 816. Plants thus furnished 

 are observed by Linnaeus to thrive best in a rank 

 manured soil, with which, by being conveyed to the 

 dens of wild animals, they are most likely to meet. 

 The Awns of grasses answer the same end. Pulpy 

 fruits serve quadrupeds and birds as food, while 

 their seeds, often small, hard and indigestible, pass 

 uninjured through the intestines, and are deposited 

 far from their original place of growth, in a condition 

 peculiarly fit for vegetation. Even such seeds as are 

 themselves eaten, like the various sorts of nuts, are 

 hoarded up in the ground and occasionally forgotten, 

 or carried to a distance, and in part only devoured. 

 The ocean itself serves to waft the larger kinds of 

 seeds, from their native soil to far-distant shores. 



7. RECEPTACULUM. The Receptacle is the common 

 base or point of connexion of the other parts of 

 fructification. It is not always distinguishable by 

 any particular figure, except in compound flowers 

 constituting the Linnaean class Syngenesia, in which 

 it is very remarkable and important. In the Daisy, 

 f. 208, EngL Bof. t. 424, it is conical ; in Chry- 

 santhemum, t. GO 1 , convex ; in others flat, or slightly 

 concave. Plcris, t. 972, has it naked, that is, desti- 

 tute of any hairs or scales between the florets or 



