ee 124 . s tructural a 4 Physiologica Botany. 
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THE CALYX. 
The calyx is, in its most perfect form, the protecting 
envelope for the interior more delicate parts of the flower ; 
and may therefore be compared to bud-scales. In some — 
plants, as in the Umbelliferze, it is but slightly developed, 
~ the calyx-limb being obsolete, and its teeth scarcely visible 
on the margin of the inferior ovary.'. The more perfectly 
‘developed calyx, which is generally green, consists usually 
of only a single whorl of leaves or sepals ; less often, as in 
the strawberry (Fig. 228), of two; or stcationalles as in 
instances—among Dicotyledons in the 
fuchsia, larkspur, Z7op@olum, &c.—the 
calyx is coloured ; but the whole of the 
floral envelope might in these cases be 
spoken of as a perianth, as is usually the 
case with Monocotyledons. 
The calyx is said to be gamosepalous 
Fic. 228.—Flower of the 
strawberry, with calyx OF sywsepalous |in older works on de- 
in two rows. 
scriptive botany ‘monosepalous’], when 
the leaves of which it is composed are more or less coherent 
at the base ; aposepalous or cleutherosepalous [in older works 
‘polysepalous "|, when they are completely distinct. It may 
also be regular or zrregular ; but the irregular calyx 1s almost 
always symmetrical,’ that is, it can be divided into two 
apex opens first, and then the rest in regular succession ; and (2) definite 
‘or centrifugal, in which the order of development is the reverse, the 
central flower opening first. To the second class belong the cyme and 
its varieties ; to the first most of the other kinds of inflorescence. In the 
capitulum of some Dipsacaceze we get a combination of the two.—ED. ] 
ieee NOte;-p, 115. 
2 [This term is used in most English text-books in a different sense, 
to express a relationship in number between the sepals, petals, and 
stamens. Ifthese are the same in number, or a multiple of the same 
Ue as in Saxifraga, 5, 5, 5, or Fuchsia, 4, 4, 8, the flower is said 
_-to be ‘symmetrical ;’ if this is not the case, as in Cruciferse, Ay “Ay Os or 
Labiatz, 5, 5, 4, it is said to be ‘ unsymmetrical.’— ED. | . | 
Gossypium, of ives whorls. In a few — 
