92 
NECTARY. 
and are permitted in some cases, as it might seem, to search into 
the mysteries of Providence; yet we are ever restricted by the limit- 
ed nature of our faculties, as if the Creator had said, “ Hitherto 
shalt thou go, but no farther.” 
Nectary. 
In many flowers there is an organ called a nectary , which 
secretes a peculiar fluid, the honey of the plant ; this fluid con- 
stitutes the principal food of bees, and various other species of 
insects. 
Linnaeus thought the nectary to be separate from the corolla ; 
and every part of the flower which was not stamen, pistil, calyx, 
or corolla, he called by this name : his remarks on this subject 
have given rise to more severe criticisms than almost any other 
part of his system. It is thought he applied the term nectary 
too extensively, and in too vague a manner. We cannot assert 
that the nectary is a separate organ from the corolla, because it 
often makes a part of it ; although sometimes it is entirely sepa- 
rate. 
The nectary seems not to be confined to any particular part 
of the flower. Sometimes it is a mere cavity , as in the lily. 
Fig. 27. 
The crown imperial, ( Fritillaria Impe- 
rialis ) exhibits in the claw of each of its 
petals, a nectary of this kind ; each one 
being filled with a sweet liquid, the secre- 
tion of the flower. If these drops are re- 
moved, others immediately take their place. 
You have here a representation (Fig. 27) 
of the crown imperial ; its petals appear 
cut off" near the base, in order to show the 
six nectariferous glands at the base of 
each. 
In the ranunculus, the nectary is a production of the corolla 
in the form of a scale ; in the violet a process of the same, in 
the form of a horn or spur. In the columbine, the nectary is 
a separate organ from the petals in the form of a liorn. In the 
monks-hood, one of the petals being concave, conceals the nec- 
taries ; they are therefore said to be hooded. 
In monopetalous corollas, the tube is supposed to answer the 
purpose of a nectary in secreting the honey. In the honey- 
suckle we find at the bottom of the tube, a quantity of nectari- 
Nectary, its use — not always a separate organ — nectary of the crown im- 
perial — different forms of nectaries. 
