THE COLORS OF NORTHERN APETALOUS 
FLOWERS. 
JOHN I TOVELL. 
THE dicotyledons, which include about two-thirds of flower- 
ing plants, were divided by Jussieu and Enlicher into three 
divisions — the Polypetalz, the Gamopetalz, and the Apetalz 
—an arrangement familiar in most of our floras. The highest 
type of a flower, according to De Candolle, was one that had 
all the organs present, but inserted separately upon the recep- 
tacle; for it may be argued, as A. Gray remarks, that fusion is 
an arrest of development, and therefore an indication of low 
rank, or less perfection, than the contrary. Accordingly the 
Polypetala were placed at the head of the vegetable kingdom. 
The morphological doctrine that the flower is a metamorphosed 
bud or branch, and that the union of its parts marked an upward 
progress, was not made the guiding principle in the arrange- 
ment of plant families in a lineal series until a comparatively 
recent date. The miscellaneous group of dicotyledonous fami- 
lies, known as the Apetalz, were believed to be retrogressive 
or degraded forms derived from both the Polypetala and Gamo- 
petala, which had once possessed petals and conspicuous 
flowers. This division, as originally constituted, was made 
the receptacle for families the affinities of which were obscure ; 
and, in the absence of knowledge as to its true position, was 
placed as a sort of appendix after the Gamopetale. It required 
the united labors of Braun, Hanstein, ‘and Engler to determine 
and place in their proper collocation those families which are 
clearly reductions, and to point out that those remaining 
are not derived from the higher orders, but are primitive in 
character. They are naked blooming, according to Eichler, 
rather than abortive. 
In many of the true apetalous families the perianth has 
remained rudimentary, and in those of lowest rank has never 
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