BOTANICAL SUB.jEtt.-. 347 



segments, of which the peal is undoubtedly made up, never 

 reached the stage of leaves ; or else that, having done so, they 

 returned to the depauperated state, similar to that of simply 

 cellular structures. 



The absence of any trace of special fibro-vascular tissue in tlie 

 peel, it is evident to me, cannot be accepted as an argument that 

 the segments of the peel, as seen in the digitate form, are not of an 

 independent phyllous nature. 



Bracts and sepals, leallets and whole leaves are often so 

 depauperated as to loose all trace of fibro-vascular tissue, yet they 

 are of a phyllous nature, which in reality means that they arc 

 sub-di\dsions of a stem, or of a cladophijl . 



It is quite sufficient to look over the drawings of the Rutaceai, 

 given in Bai lion's '* Hist, des Plantes," to feel convinced that the 

 orange peel is not the outside of the pulp-carpels, as some 

 botanists believe. 



In the Rutaceae, to which the Citrus belongs, I think -sve 

 tind unmistakable evidence that the carpels proj^er are gradually 

 encroached upon by the atrophied stamens fused into what we 

 call the dish. 



Rut a graveolens, as will l)e seen in Fig. 139, has a low " peel,"* 

 encircling the base only of the carpels. 



Erythrochiton braziliense has a still higher " peel," which 

 rises above the ovary in the shape of a five-lobed tube. This is 

 what Prof. H. Baillon says of it : " The stamens ajDpear as if 

 they were inserted high up on the corrola, because their filaments, 

 while doubling the tube of the corolla, only free themselves at its 



gorge The high conical disk hides all the loAver 



portion of the ovary Sterility of a certain number of 



stamens is the rulef in the majority of the species of this 

 genus." 



Spiranthera odoratissima has its " peel " divided into 

 segments, each segment covering a carpel half way up, with 

 adhesion on the margins of the segments, so that it forms a fluted 

 cup, like the young peel of the Citrus, Fig. 149. 



* I o:\ll its i{\<k. peel, so as to make tlie lioinolofjy more appaivnt. 



f The reader should note this, hecansc I inaintain that the orange peel 

 is made up of cnlartred sterile stamens, fused tofrdher like the sheath of 

 P. montait. 



