40 



DOUBLE FLOWERS. 



the essential parts of fructification are destroyed. Luxuriant 

 flowers are divisible into, 1. Multiplicate, multiplied. 2. Pleni, 

 full. And 3. Proliferous, producing young ; to which may be 

 added, 4. Mutilate, maimed ; such as are deficient in some part, 

 which stand opposed to the luxuriant ones : all these shall be 

 explained in their order. 



1. Flowers are said to be multiplicate, when by the increase 

 of the corolla only a part of the stamina are excluded; and 

 this distinguishes them from the jlores pleni, full jlovcers, in 

 which the multiplication of the corolla is so great as to exclude 

 them all. Multiplicate flowers are distinguished into duplicate, 

 triplicate, quadruplicate, &c. that is, having a double, treble, or 

 quadruple series, or row, according to the number of the repeti- 

 tions of the corolla. The polypetalous flowers are the most sub- 

 ject to multiplication ; the monopetalous are multiplied likewise, 

 but it is very uncommon to meet with them full. A coloured pe- 

 rianthium, though it may have the appearance of a repetition of 

 the corolla, ought not to be considered as such; for though this 

 appearance is in some degree monsirous, unnatural, it is no mul- 

 tiplication. 



2. A flower is said to be plenus, full, when the corolla is so 

 far multiplied as to exclude all the stamina, as was before ob- 

 served. The plenitude, fullness, is occasioned by the stamina 

 running into petals, with which the flower is so crowded as fre- 

 quently to choak the pistillum also. The parts essential to gene- 

 ration being thus destroyed in full flower it is evident they must 

 be barren ; wherefore no good seed is to be expected from 

 them*. And for the same reason of their imperfection, we should 

 be cautious also of constituting a genus from them ; for the cha- 

 racters of a genus should be drawn from the parts when in their 

 natural state, and not when in a state of luxuriancy. 



Plenitude is chiefly incidental to polypetalous flowers, as in 



* Some few, as the Pionia, Papaver, and Nigella, perfect their seed : but these 

 are rather multiplicate flowers than full ones. 



