1*28 ORGANOGRAPHY. BOOK I. 
nor pistil nor their rudiments are to be found, no assemblage 
of leaves, whatever may be their form or colour, or how much 
soever they may resemble the calyx and corolla, can constitute 
a flower. 
We usually consider the flower to consist of a certain num- 
ber of whorls, or of parts originating round a common centre 
from the same plane. But Adolphe Brongniart has correctly 
pointed out the fact that what we call whorls in a flower are 
in many cases not so, strictly speaking, but only a series of 
parts in close approximation, and at different heights upon 
the short branch that forms the axis. This is particularly 
obvious in a Cistus, where, of the five sepals, two are lower 
and exterior, and three higher and within the first. The 
manner also in which the petals overlap each other evidently 
points to a similar cause, although the fact of those pieces 
being inserted at different heights may not be apparent. 
— {See Ann. des Sc. v. xxiii. p. 226.) 
The flower, when in the state of a bud, is called the alahas- 
trus (houton of the French) ; a name used by Pliny for the 
rose-bud. Some writers say alahastrum, forgetting, as it 
would seem, that that term was used by the Romans for a 
scent-box,, and not for the bud of a flower. Link calls the 
parts of a flower generally, whether united or connate, moria, 
whence a flower is hi-polymorious (Elem., 243.); but I know of 
no other writer who employs these terms, which indeed are 
quite superfluous. 
The flowers of an anthodium, which are small, and some- 
what different in structure from ordinary flowers, are called 
florets (Jlosculi ; elytriculi of Necker ; ^^wrow of the French). 
The period when a flower opens is called its anthesis ; the 
manner in which its parts are arranged, with respect to each 
other, before the opening, is called the cestivation. Estivation 
is the same to a flower-bud as vernation (p. 61.) is to a leaf- 
bud : the terms expressive of its modifications are to be sought 
in Glossology. This term aestivation is applied separately to 
the parts of which a flower may consist ; thus, we speak of the 
aestivation of the calyx, of the corolla, of the stamens, and 
of the pistil; but never of the aestivation of a flower col- 
lectively. 
