INTRODUCTION. IX 



ceptacle which also supports the petals and the fruit. The sepals, if there are 

 any, and the petals, are always separate and inferior. 



In the Calyciflorce the character is not so simple. The stamens are placed on 

 the calyx, or on a ring which seems to support the calyx and the petals (which 

 are always separate), and is quite detached from the fruit ; or the germen is infe- 

 rior or half inferior, and the corolla polypetalous ; or the germen is inferior and 

 the corolla monopetalous. The Compositce are placed, I think, rather arbitrarily, 

 in this division, for the stamens grow upon what is the only covering of a 

 superior flower. If, indeed, we should admit the pappus, or crest, as a repre- 

 sentative of the calyx, the coloured part would be acknowledged by all botanists 

 to be a corolla, and the plants would belong to the Corolliflorce ; and if we do 

 Jiot admit the crest to be calyx, the order would rather belong to the Monochla- 

 mydeffi. The Caonpanulacea, Vaccinice, EricinecE, and Monotropece, seem also 

 forced into this class, since the stamens rise from within the corolla. The corolla 

 being monopetalous will, however, easily distinguish them from the TJialami- 

 fiorcB ; and the stamens being independent of the corolla, from the Corolliflora. 



The CorollifJo7-ce have the stamens growing on the corolla, which is mono- 

 petalous ; and there seems to be no exception to this rule, unless among the 

 Plumbaginece and Flaniaginecs ; and it was probably from the anomalous struc- 

 ture of these tribes that De CandoUe was induced to place them among the 

 MonocldamydefB, though pointedly contradicting the character of this tribe. 



The MonocJilamydeiB do not include all dicotyledonous flowers which, have only 

 a single perianth. Several species, and even some genera, of the preceding 

 orders, want a corolla, others want a calyx ; and if, in compliance with the phra- 

 seology of many modern botanists, we call it a calyx where there is only one 

 covering, this does not help us to determine whether the plant in question is 

 monochlamydeous or not ; nor can I point out to the student any way of ob- 

 taining this knowledge otherwise than by acquu-ing a familiarity with vegetable 

 forms, and a degree of tact which will point out the probable relations of the 

 one before him. 



