316 OBSERVATIONS ON THE NATURAL FAMILY 



tinue distinct nearly to the base of the tube, where they 

 converge and appear to unite with the middle nerve. 



In Acicarpha and Boopis the filaments appear to me 

 jointed as in Compositse ; a character I have not been able 

 to observe in the very few flowers which I have examined 

 of Calycera. 



In Acicarpha the florets of the circumference are herma- 

 phrodite and apparently complete, the antherae containing 

 pollen and the ovaria producing seed ; while those of the 

 disk are male with an incomplete pistillum. Such an 

 arrangement has not hitherto been observed in Compositas, 

 in which, wherever the central florets are male with an 

 imperfect pistillum, those of the circumference are female 

 with or without the rudiments of stamina. 



The regularity in the order of expansion of flowers from 

 the base to the top of the capitulum in Acicarpha tribu- 

 loides and spathulata, and the irregularity, approaching to 

 the inverted order, which I have found to exist in both 

 species of Boopis, seem to prove, the capitulum to be 

 simple in the former genus and compound in the latter, 

 notwithstanding the great resemblance between their invo- 

 lucra. The exact nature of its composition, however, in 

 Boopis can only be satisfactorily determined in recent spe- 

 cimens. 



140] This irregular expansion in Boopis, which renders 

 even the generic name improper, and at present the want 

 of satisfactory characters to distinguish it from Calycera, 

 are objections to the name M. Cassini has chosen for this 

 family ; while that of Calycerece, which I have proposed, 

 derived from the genus first described, and applicable to all 

 the genera of the order, appears to me unexceptionable : 

 especially as there seems no reason to doubt that the part 

 which I have considered as calyx in Boopidece is really 

 such ; its divisions being generally in equal number, and 

 alternating with those of the corolla. It may be observed 

 that a like alternation of the divisions of the pappus with 

 the segments of the corolla obtains in those genera of Com- 

 positse where both parts are in equal number. But in 

 some cases, where the division of pappus is still further 



