CHAP. 11. 
BRACTS. 
123 
fructification ; their office being to reproduce the species by a 
process in some respects analogous to that which takes place 
in the animal kingdom. The latter are, however, all modifi- 
cations of the former, as will hereafter be seen, and as the 
subject of this division is in itself a kind of proof ; bracts not 
being exactly either organs of vegetation or reproduction, but 
between the two. 
Botanists call Bracts either the leaf from the axil of 
which a flower is developed, such as we find in Veronica 
agrestis ; or else all those leaves that are found upon the inflo- 
rescence, and are situated between the true leaves and the 
calyx. There are, in reality, no exact limits between bracts 
and common leaves ; but in general the former may be known 
by their situation immediately below the calyx, by their 
smaller size, difference of outline, colour, and other marks. 
They are generally entire, however much the leaves may be 
divided ; frequently scariose, either wholly or in part ; often 
deciduous before the flowers expand ; but rarely very much 
dilated, as in Origanum Dictamnus, and a few other plants. 
It is often more difficult to distinguish bracts from the sepals 
of a polyphyllous calyx than even from the leaves of the stem. 
In fact, there is in many cases no other mode than ascertain- 
ing the usual number of sepals in other plants of the same 
natural order, and considering every leaf-like appendage on 
the outside of the usual number of sepals as a bract. In 
Camellia, for example, if it were not known that the normal 
number of sepals of kindred genera is five, it would be im- 
possible to determine the number of its sepals. When the 
bracts are very small, they are called bractlets ; or, if they 
are of different sizes upon the same inflorescence, the smallest 
receive that name. It rarely occurs that an inflorescence is 
destitute of bracts. In Cruciferas this is a general character, 
and is observed by Link to indicate an extremely irregular 
structure. When bracts do not immediately support a flower 
or its stalk, they are called empty (vacuce). As a general 
rule, it is to be understood, that whatever intervenes between 
the true leaves and the calyx, whatever be their form, colour, 
size, or other peculiarity, comes within the meaning of the 
term. 
