33ti 



NATVUAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



and arulroccum ; while towards the bottom, answering to the organic 

 apex, are grouped the elements of the gyna^ceum. The calyx usually 

 consists of five' more or less dissimilar leaves, quincuncially imbri- 



Rosa fimpinel'ifoUa. 



Vm. 374. 

 Longitudinal section of flouoi-. 



Fig. 375. 

 Diagram. 



Fig. 376. 

 Carpel laid open. 



cated in the bud.- The petals have short claws, and are as numerous 

 as the sepals, alternating with them and simihirly imbricated in the 



monstrous roses, described and figured during 

 the last two centuries, wliere the receptacle re- 

 verts more or less to the form of an ordinary 

 brancli, prolonged beyond the normal floral ap- 

 ]>endiii:es to end in another flower, or producing 

 lateral proliferous branches at difterent heights. 

 The reader will understand that the nature of 

 this work does not i)crmit us to go fully into 

 these matters of teratology, which are very in- 

 teresting, and have served, since the time of 

 GoKTiiK, to explain the morphological value of 

 the axial or appendicular appendages entering 

 into the formation of a flower. 



' The number 5 is normal in Rhodopkora 



(Neck., Elem., n. 748; — Endl., Ioc. cit., b). 

 W^e rarely find 4, and still more rarely 6 ; the 

 former innnber characterizes the subgenus Rho- 

 do2}-ns (Endl., Ioc. cit., a). 



■^ It is ascertained that the overlapped edges 

 are simpler, more entire, and more membranous, 

 and usually less green than those which overlap ; 

 these are usually fringed, incised, pinnatifid, or 

 pinnatisect ; and the more they are developed and 

 lobed, the more they resemble the cauline leaves. 

 In short, a sepal here represents a leaf especially 

 developed in the lower portion (see Pater, Elem. 

 de Bot., 151, fig. 264-269). 



