OUTLINES OF BOTANY. 
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■ involucre, they have been termed a calycule , and the calyx or involucre said to be caly- 
culate , but these terms are now falling into disuse, as conveying a false impression. 
81. A Spatha is a bract or floral leaf enclosing the inflorescence of some Monocoty- 
ledons. 
82. Palea, Pales , or Chaff, are the inner bracts or scales in Composite, Gramineoe , 
and some other plants, when of a thin yet stiff consistence, usually narrow and of a 
pale colour. 
83. Glumes are the bracts enclosing the flowers of Cyperaceae and Graminece. 
§ 8. The Flower in General. 
84. A complete Flower (15) is one in which the calyx, corolla, stamens, and pistils 
are all present ; a perfect flower, one in which all these organs, or such of them as are 
present, are capable of performing their several functions. Therefore, properly speak- 
ing, an incomplete flower is one in which any one or more of these organs is wanting ; 
and an imperfect flower, one in which any one or more of these organs is so altered as 
to be incapable of properly performing its functions. These imperfect organs are said 
to be abortive if much reduced in size or efficiency, rudimentary if so much so as to 
be scarcely perceptible. But, in many works, the term incomplete is specially applied 
to those flowers in which the perianth is simple or wanting, and imperfect to those in 
which either the stamens or pistil are imperfect or wanting. 
85. A Flower is 
dichlamydeous, when the perianth is double, both calyx and corolla being present 
and distinct. 
monochlamydeous, when the perianth is single, whether by the union of the calyx 
and corolla, or the deficiency of either. 
asepalous, when there is no calyx. 
apetalous, when there is no corolla. 
naked , when there is no perianth at all. 
hermaphrodite or bisexual, when both stamens and pistil are present and perfect. 
male or staminate, when there are one or more stamens, but either no pistil at all 
or an imperfect one. 
female or pistillate, when there iB a pistil, but either no stamens at all, or only 
imperfect ones. 
neuter , when both stamens and pistil are imperfect or wanting. 
barren or sterile, when from any cause it produces no seed. 
fertile, when it does produce seed. In some works the terms barren, fertile, and 
perfect are also used respectively as synonyms of male, female, and hermaphrodite. 
86. The flowers of a plant or species are said collectively to be unisexual or diclinous 
when the flowers are all either male or female. 
monoecious, when the male and female flowers are distinct, but on the same plant. 
dioecious, when the male and female flowers are on distinct plants. 
polygamous, when there are male, female, and hermaphrodite flowers on the same 
or on distinct plants. 
87. A head of flowers is heterogamous when male, female, hermaphrodite, and neuter 
flowers, or any two or three, of them, are included in one head ; homogamous, when all 
the flowers included in one Tread are alike in this respect. A spike or head of flowers 
is androgynous when male and female flowers are mixed in it. These terms are only 
used in the case of very few Natural Orders. 
88. As the scales of buds are leaves undeveloped or reduced in size and altered in 
shape and consistence, and bracts are leaves likewise reduced in size, and occasionally 
altered in colour ; so the parts of the flower are considered as leaves still further altered 
in shape, colour, and arrangement round the axis, and often more or less combined with 
each other. The details of this theory constitute the comparatively modern branch of 
botany called Vegetable Metamorphosis, or Homology, sometimes improperly termed 
Morphology (8). 
89. To understand the arrangement of the floral parts, let us take a complete flower, 
in which moreover all the parts are free from each other, definite in number, i. e. always 
- the same in the same species, and symmetrical or isomerous, i. e. when each whorl con- 
sists of the same number of parts. 
