352 



Notes on the Common Primrose. 



Class Pentandria, from pente five, and oner a Greek word, which 

 in Botanical works is used to signify a stamen — having five sta- 

 mens. Order 1st, Monogynia, from monos single, and gune, which 

 in like manner is translated a pistil — having one pistil. This 

 simple and elegant flower, which is very abundant in all our woods, 

 hedge-banks, and thickets, throughout the County, is of considerable 

 interest to the scientific Botanist. This interest is derived from 

 the circumstance that it offers an apparent exception to the truth 

 of that general and important law of the alternate disposition of 

 vegetable organs. I trust I shall be able to prove that the excep- 

 tion is only apparent, and that although this circumstance has been 

 quoted against the Natural system, yet it is in reality an excellent 

 proof of its truth. If we attentively examine the arrangement of 

 the different parts of a plant, we shall find that they are for the 

 most part disposed in whorls whose parts are respectively alternate. 

 Thus the parts of the calyx (sepals) alternate with the floral leaves 

 (bractea). The parts of the corolla (petals) with those of the 

 calyx — the stamens with the petals, and the pistils with the 

 stamens. The scientific Botanist will readily understand this to 

 be owing to the shortening of the central axis of the plant, around 

 which the several parts are spirally arranged, and which therefore 

 necessarily become alternate. On opening the tube of the flower 

 of the Primrose, however, we find that the stamens are in fact 

 placed so as to correspond with each of the portions of the border 

 of the flower, instead of being alternate with them ! This then is 

 the anomaly to be explained. It is sometimes found that the 

 organs of plants have altered in their appearance, and losing their 

 original functions, acquire new ones. This transmutation occasion- 

 ally proceeds to a perfect abortion and final obliteration of the 

 part in question. Thus, in most of the flowers of the Nightshade 

 tribe (Solanacece) there are five perfect uniform stamens ; but in 

 the flowers of Mullein (Verlascum) , which is a genus of this tribe, 

 they are irregular, three being shorter than the rest, exhibiting 

 the first stage in the process of obliteration. In the Figwort tribe 

 (ScropJmlariacetf) , which is closely related to the Solanacece, the 

 process is continued but chiefly affecting the fifth or odd stamen, 



