150 
ORGANOGRAPHY. 
BOOK I 
The pieces of which these three classes of bracts are com- 
posed are called valves or valvulce by the greater part of bo- 
tanists ; but, as that term has been thought not to convey an 
accurate idea of their nature, Desvaux has proposed to sub- 
stitute that of spathella, which is adopted by De Candolle. 
Palisot proposed to restrict the term glume to the pieces 
of the glume, and to call the pieces of the perianthium palece. 
Richard called the pieces of both glume and perianthium 
paleob^ and the scales paleolcB, It seems to me most con- 
venient to use the term valvula, because it is more familiar to 
botanists than any other, and because I do not see the force 
of the objection which is taken to it. 
In the genus Carex two bracts {Jig- 67. z, h) become con- 
fluent at the edges, and enclose the pistil, leaving a passage 
for the stigmas at their apex. They thus form a single urceo- 
late body, named urceolus ov perigynium. De Candolle justly 
observes, in his Theorie, that some botanists call this nec- 
tarium^ although it does not produce honey ; others capsula, 
although it has nothing to do with the fruit ; but he does not 
seem to me more correct than those he criticises in arrangino^ 
the urceolus among his miscellaneous appendages of the floral 
organs, which are “ni organes genitaux ni tegumens.” I 
believe I was the first who explained the true nature of the 
urceolus, in my translation of Richard’s Analyse du Fruity 
printed in 1819 (p. 13.). 
At the base of the ovary of Cyperaceae are often found little 
filiform appendages, called liypogynous setee {Jig, 67. d) by 
most botanists, and perigynium by Nees von Esenbeck. 
These are probably of the nature of the squamulae of Grasses, 
and have been ndimedi perisponim by some French writers. 
Bracts are generally distinct from each other, and imbri- 
cated or alternate. Nevertheless, there are some striking 
exceptions to this ; as remarkable instances of which may be 
cited Althaea and Lavatera among Malvaceae, Euphorbia, all 
Dipsaceae, and some Trifolia, particularly my Tr. cyathiferum, 
in all which the bracts are accurately verticillate, and their 
margins confluent, as in a true calyx. 
