BOTANICA. 
7 
flower, as in act&a, thalictrum , or falls off with the stamina, 
and other parts of the flower, as in most plants ; or does not 
fall, but withers, as in campanula, cucutms, and others. 
There is also apart which, Linnaeus says, principally belongs 
to the corolla, as an appendage to the petals ; which he calls 
the NECTAR 1UM,* (from nectar, the fabled drink of the 
gods) and is that part containing the honey, which is the 
principal food of bees, and other insects; but, though in such 
plants where it is found, it may more commonly be attached 
to the corolla, and be then most evident; yet it is almost as 
oft attached to other parts of the fructification ; Linneeus 
therefore chiefly makes use of it, as an essential character in 
many of the genera, as being less variable than his other dis¬ 
tinctions, as in ranunculus, and parnassia palustris, &c.f- and 
observes that when it is distinct from the petals (that is) not 
united with their substance, those plants are generally poison¬ 
ous | The tube or lower part of the flowers of one petal, he 
considers as. a true nec.tarium, because it contains a sweet 
liquor. But as it affords very singular varieties in other in¬ 
stances, it hath obtained the following distinctions. 
1st. Calycine nectahi a, such as are situated upon, and 
make part of the calyx, as in tropaolum, monotropa, &c. 
2d. CoEOLLACEOUS NECTAitiA, such as are attached to 
the corolla; and are called calcariate (from calcar) when 
they resemble a spur or horn ; which are either on flowers of 
one petal, as in valeriana, antirrhinum, &c. or on flowers of 
many petals, as in orchis, delphinium, viola, fumaria, &c.; 
Or the nectarium lies within the substance of the petals, as 
in jritillaria, lilium, herheris, iris, ranunculus, &c. 
* The proper use of the nectarium> and why it should have such very different 
situations, is not yet certainly known : but as it is found in most plants, there is 
great reason to believe it an essential part in the fructification, though not always 
perceptible, Poritedera imagined the balsam contained in the nectarium was im¬ 
bibed by the seeds, to make them keep and preserve their vegetative quality the lod¬ 
ger, and as long as this balsam remained in the seeds, so long they would generate* 
InParnassia palustris,the 5 nectaries are very beautiful, each having an hearted 
concave scale, fringed with 13 pedicles along its margin rising gradually higher, 
and each terminated by a transparent globe. 
