THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 69 



between animals and reptiles, viz : the Tortoise which it some- 

 what resembles, is another popular error, for the Armadillo has a 

 coat of mail, im.planted as it were on the skin, whilst the shell of the 

 Tortoise is part of the skeleton extended, and as it were thrown out- 

 side the body for the protection of the internal organs. The Bat, 

 ignorantly asserted by many to be a connecting link between birds 

 and mammals, belongs exclusively to the latter as much as the so- 

 called flying squirrel, and the flying fish has acquired that name 

 only from the impetus it gains by its fiins in leaping out of the water 

 when pursued by larger fish, the fins not being used as wings at all. 

 Errors like these have to be guarded against by the student of 

 Natural History, and, where possible, nothing should be taken for 

 granted without examination. 



Turning to the vegetable kingdom we find the mutual relations of 

 the parts of the flower and their homology with the leaves indicated 

 by those cases in which there is a gradational passage from the leaf 

 to the bract, from the bract to the sepal, from that to the petal, and 

 from the petal to the stamen. The non-development of some organ 

 possessed by neighboring groups is manifested by the presence of that 

 organ in a rudimentary or undeveloped condition. When the whorl, 

 or part of it, in a flower is suppressed, the deficiency is manifested 

 either by the presence of the undeveloped organs in rudimentary 

 form, or by leaving a space for them in the arrangements of the parts 

 which are present. Thus, in the Primrose tribe, there is a single 

 row of stamens opposite to the petals, instead of alternately with 

 them, according to the regular plan of floral development, from which 

 the botanist concludes that a whorl has been suppressed, which ought 

 to intervene between the petals and stamens. The rudiments of an 

 intermediate row are found in the Samotus in the form of a whorl 

 of little scales, not developed into stamens. In the common Sage, 

 only two stamens are found where the plan of the flower would lead 

 us to expect five; but on looking at the interior of the corolla 

 attentively, two little scales may be seen where the two deficient 

 stamens should have been. These scales are frequently developed 

 as perfect stamens in flowers, which otherwise are constructed pre- 

 cisely like the Sage. 



In botany, however, the term transition might more appropriately 

 be used than connecting links. The Algae, or water weeds, vegetate 

 exclusively in water or damp situations. Their nearest representa- 



