190 LETTER XLV. 



agreed in considering it composed of three consolidated 

 sepals, of which two are rounded and one only pro- 

 duced into a long appendage or tail. This opinion is 

 founded partly upon the prevalence of the number 

 three in the other organs of fructification, partly upon 

 the regular flow^ered genera of the Birthwort Tribe 

 having a calyx of three divisions, and in some measure 

 upon the theory, that a calyx is in all cases to be 

 considered a whorl of sepals. It may, however, be 

 fairly doubted whether in the genus Aristolochia, the 

 calyx is really formed of more than a single sepal, or 

 leaf, rolled together into a tube, and, in the present 

 species, extended at its point into a tail. But to this 

 I shall advert again. 



At the bottom of the cup of the calyx stands a 

 short, club-shaped column {fig. 2.), split into six lobes 

 at its point ; and consisting of six anthers, adhering 

 to a style and six-rayed stigma which they conceal. 

 Each anther {fig. 3.) is a fleshy, somewhat shrivelled, 

 sharp-pointed connective, on the outside of which are 

 planted two parallel cells, which consequently are 

 turned away from the stigma, and face the inside of 

 the calyx. The ovary is placed beneath the calyx, 

 in the form of a club-shaped, twisted stalk {fig. 1. d.y, 

 it contains six cells {fig. 4.), in each of which is a 

 long row of ovules, attached obHquely to the placenta. 

 With the seed-vessel of this species I am unacquainted ; 

 but in others it is a large pear-shaped capsule, opening 

 by six sutures at the sides, and allowing the seeds to 

 escape through a sort of coarse grating, produced by 

 a laceration of the dissepiments. The seeds are 



