Linnean System of Plants. 53 
its place; the glume is the calyx of the grasses. The other 
three have been disputed by many botanists, as not properly 
calyces. It was a rule with Linneus, to characterise the genera 
of plants by the parts of fructification, and it has been said of 
him that he sometimes misapplied terms, and made nature 
bend under the yoke of system. In most cases, his love of 
nature, stronger than his self-love, preserved him from this 
error, as Many passages in his works amply testify ; but there 
appears to be some foundation for the assertion that he some- 
times improperly bestowed the name of calyx on parts which 
he found necessary to the distinction of genera. I spoke of 
the zrvolucrum, in my last letter, as a name given by some bo- 
tanists (I should have said by Linnzeus) to the leaves (now 
called bracteas) at the base of the umbels, in umbelliferous 
plants. It is not wholly confined to those plants commonly so 
designated, but extends to several others which have a similar 
mode of inflorescence, as the Primula, &c. (jg.10.) In 
addition to other objections to the term calyx 
as applied to these leaves, it has been observed 4a ? 
that where they are Oc there is commonly SN ae 
=) 
one 
y NS by 
a calyx also, as in the example here given, where 
every flower has its own calyx (a), as well as the * 
znvoluci ‘wm, which 1 is styled the common calyx (0). 
To give the name of calyx to the amentum is 
like calling a whole village a cottage. The 10 
amentum is the mode of nafereseonce: it is composed of 
a number of flowers affixed to a thread-shaped receptacle 
termed the rachis (back-bone, Gr.), and the true calyx 
is a hollow scale, which protects the stamens and pisiils. 
Why the spatha should be considered as inappropriately 
named a calyx, I cannot understand; it is the office of the 
calyx to protect the flower until it has strength sufficient to 
protect itself; some flowers never lose the protection of the 
calyx, others: require it only while in bud. The spatha does 
enclose the bud; by the swelling of which it is opened on 
one side, and gives egress to the flower. In some 
plants, the flower is still contained within it, like a statue 
in its niche; as in the arum, rere called by village 
children, “lords and ladies” (fg. 11.), or that e elegant 
plant the Calla ethiopica, Lee called the arum. 
A young student will, probably, be surprised to learn 
that the beautiful ries frosted, leather y vase, which 
he took for the corolla of that flower, is the calyx; 
but he must not suffer himself*to be misled by toloun, 
The colour of flowers is often:materially influenced by 
soil and situation; some flowers have been known to 
E 3 
