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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



maybe well seen in the flower of the Raspberry, in which the " tube " is more 

 like a little trough within the stamens ; but in the Cherry or Peach 

 blossom it constitutes the formerly so-called " calyx- tube," * and is lined 

 with a honey-secreting surface. As the petals and stamens are thus 

 carried away to some little distance from the pistil, they are called 

 " perigynous," i.e. "around the ovary." In the Rose it appears to have 

 lost its power of secreting honey, but forms the scarlet hep in the 

 .autumn. 



In some flowers the floral receptacle develops several isolated " honey 

 glands" (five in Geranium), or else a complete ring or cushionlike 

 structure, so that some botanists intercalate the group Disciflorce after 

 Thalamiflorce ; but this must not be confounded with the receptacular 

 tube, which contains all the fibro-vascular bundles belonging to the 

 sepals, petals, and stamens, whereas a honey-disk is only a cellular out- 

 growth of the superficial tissues containing no such bundles. 



4. The next step is seen in those flowers in which the receptacular 

 tube is partly adherent to the ovary. This latter is then said to be " half 

 inferior " (such occurs in Saxifraga granulata, Gloxinias, &c.) ; but if the 

 adhesion be . completely to the top of the ovary — the usual condition — 

 then the ovary is " inferior," the calyx-limb, petals, and stamens arising 

 from the top of the ovary. 



The calyx is then "superior," but the petals and stamens are called 

 " epigynous," i.e. " upon the ovary." 



This condition is seen in Ivy, any umbellifer or composite kc. 



Sometimes the summit of the receptacular tube spreads out above the 

 ovary ; it then carries the sepals, petals, and stamens to a distance, and 

 the latter may be called perigynous, with a superior calyx. This condition 

 is seen in Apple, Pear, and Currant. 



The cause of this adhesion, as well as of the receptacular tube itself, 

 is supposed to be due, primarily, to the irritation of the tissues incited by 

 insects. But the theory awaits confirmation, and also possibly to be 

 supplanted by some better one in the future, if such can be discovered. 



All the orders possessing free petals, together with' this receptacular 

 tube, whether free from or adherent to the ovary, form the division 

 Galyciflorce. 



Next follow all the orders in which the petals are coherent. They 

 constitute the division Gamopetalce, i.e. " petals united." A few have 

 the ovary inferior, but in the majority it is superior. 



The Composite thus represent the highest type. A floret has a 

 gamopetalous corolla, coherent anthers, and stamens adherent to corolla. 



On the other hand, the pistil is reduced to a one-ovuled two-carpelled 

 ovary, and the calyx to a pappus or is wanting. A rudimentary calyx is the 

 ruling condition whenever flowers are densely crowded. 



5. Regularity characterises early types of flowers. 



That all irregular flowers have descended from regular ones is to be 

 inferred — first, from such a fact as that Larkspur and Aconite are the only 

 two genera of the large order Banunculacece, which have irregular flowers ; 

 secondly, that plants normally bearing irregular flowers often produce 



* It was at one time regarded as being the lower part of the calyx ; in some flowers 

 both seem to take part in it. 



