THE MIGNONETTE TRIBE. 37 



knew of a plant which had established itself in a cre- 

 vice at the top of the back- wall in the inside a green- 

 house, just beneath the glass roof; it remained growing 

 in that situation for some years, putting forth its odo- 

 riferous flowers the whole winter long ; and it had 

 become quite a bush at the time when it was destroyed 

 by an accident. 



In the leaves of Mignonette there is nothing suffi- 

 ciently remarkable to point out ; but the flowers are 

 exceedingly curious. They grow in racemes {Plate 

 XXIX. 1. fig. 1.), on longish stalks, from the bosom 

 of little green bracts. Each consists externally of a 

 calyx, composed of six, linear, green sepals {fig- 2. 

 a. a.)y of equal size, and rather shorter than the petals. 

 The latter are also six in number, but very unequal in 

 size and dissimilar in form ; the largest {fig. ^. b. and 

 fig. 3.) are green, fleshy, wedge-shaped bodies, bor- 

 dered with unequal, whitish, gland-like hairs, and 

 ha\'ing at the upper end a crest, consisting of white, 

 flat threads, which are broader at the upper than the 

 lower end. The smallest petals are roundish, and 

 much shorter than their crest-like appendage, which, 

 moreover, is made up of much fewer parts than that 

 of the largest petals. From within the base of the 

 petals there rises a short green stalk {fig. 6. a. and 

 fig. 4. «.), called the gynophore, from the top of 

 which springs a one-sided, brown, hairy lobe, or disk 

 { fig. i. h. and fig. 6. b.), hollowed out into a short 

 tube at the bottom, where it surrounds the base of the 

 ovary, and bearing twelve stamens at the top of the 

 tube (fig. 4.). 



