PHANEROGAMIA : FLOWERS. 345 



learner. The elucidation of these specialities belongs to Special Botany, 

 where, however, the development of the characters of families must be 

 carried out much farther than is done in the present barren summary of 

 the equally barren descriptions of genera. 



I have nothing more to add to what has been said in the paragraphs. 



153. The epicalyx is exhibited when three several series of 

 foliar organs are distinguishable in the floral envelopes, and 

 it is the outermost of these. There are not many plants which 

 possess an epicalyx; still fewer are the families in which it is 

 constantly presented. In form and structure it much resembles 

 the calyx. It occurs with free leaves, as in Passiflora ; and co- 

 herent leaves, as in Lavatera. Its leaves are seldom delicate like 

 those of the corolla, but are often dry and membranous, as in 

 Scabiosa, but generally green and leafy, as in the Malvaceae and 

 Dryadeoz. 



Since all floral envelopes are but foliar organs peculiarly modified, 

 and since the bracteoles situated on the floral axis below the flower may 

 assume almost all those modifications, so naturally we cannot set a 

 boundary to the flower below by means of the definition, where such a 

 boundary is not presented to us by nature. In the families of the Mal- 

 v#me(fig.204.), Dipsacece, and PassifloracfZ, certain circles of organs are 

 united into a collective form outside the calyx, and evidentlv in a very 

 close relation to the flower ; and these therefore, no less than the calyx, 

 deserve to be accepted and characterised as one special form of the floral 

 envelopes. In all families with dispersed leaves, no doubt can exist as 

 to the distinction between bracteoles and epicalyx, if the latter be de- 

 scribed as one leaf circle close outside the calyx or spiral. In a ver- 

 ticillate arrangement of the leaves, the distinction might be more dif- 

 ficult; but I am not acquainted with any such case. 



Some Botanists have imagined that they have cleverly explained the 

 epicalyx of the Dryadece, as, for instance, it appears in Potentilla, 

 where they have deduced it from the coherent stipules of the calicine 

 leaves. Such false ideas and false explanations are the inevitable con- 

 sequences of the perverse method of guessing instead of investigating. 

 The epicalyx of Potentilla and its allies is a true leaf circle, and, as is 

 self-evident, the first which is formed on the entire flower, and the sepals 

 arise subsequently and higher upon the axis as the second circle of 

 leaves. 



b. Of the Stamens. 



154. The stamen is doubtless a true foliar organ, and of all 

 the foliar organs of the flower is that which exhibits forms the most 

 analogous to the stem leaf. 



It is the only foliar organ of the flower which is not merely 

 defined morphologically by its form and position, but also phy- 

 siologically determined by the importance of its peculiar structure 

 to the formation of the spore, here called the pollen. The law 

 here is: Where no pollen is formed, there is no stamen. The 



