14 GOETHE ON THE METAMORPHOSIS OF PLANTS. 
53. Many petals, without being perceptibly altered in form, never- 
theless indicate their relation to the stamens by little cavities, or by 
‘glands attached to them, from which a honey-like liquid exudes. 
‘That this may possibly be the fertilizing moisture in a yet imperfect, 
unelaborated state, we may partly conjecture on the grounds above 
alleged; and this will appear still more probable from reasons to be 
presently adduced.* 
54. In other instances the so-called nectaries assume the appear- 
ance of independent organs; and under this disguise they sometimes 
mimic the petals, sometimes the stamens. Take as examples the nec- 
taries of Parnassia; in which thirteen filaments, each tipped with a 
little red ball, bear a strong resemblance to stamens; or Vallisneria 
and Feuillea, where they are like filaments without anthers; or Penta- 
petes, in which they have a leaf-like form, and are arranged in a circle 
alternating regularly with the stamens. In systematic works these 
organs are described as filamenta castrata petaliformia. Similar am- 
“biguous formations occur in Kiggellaria and the Passion-flower. 
55. The name of nectary, as explained above, may be equally well 
applied to the peculiar accessory corolla (*paracorolla, Schleiden). If 
the formation of the petals is produced by expansion, the accessory 
corolla is the result of contraction, as in the case of the stamens. 
Thus we sometimes see within a perfect and wide-spreading corolla, a 
smaller and contracted accessory one; as in Narcissus, Nerium, and Agro- 
slemma.t 
. * At the base of the petals of the Crown Imperial, Fritillaria imperialis, there 
exists such a gland as that mentioned in the text. 
+ The crown of the Narcissus has been the subject of much discussion among 
botanists, aud its real nature can hardly be said to be yet satisfactorily made out. 
M. Gay (in Bull. Soc. Bot. France, vi. 1859) gives a concise account of the opinions 
of previous observers. His own opinion seems to be nearly the same as that of 
Schleiden, and that the organ in question is formed from the confluence of six intra- 
omis stipules (*ligules, Schleiden). Our own observations, so far as the go, 
us to support Dr. indley's views that the corona of Narcissus is com ofa 
TOW of antherless stamens, whose filaments are petaloid and coherent, M. Gay's 
objections to this view do not — to us valid; while, on the other hand, Dr. Lind- 
der — zen is supported by the analogy of Peneratium. Moreover, in N. incom- 
pro is the corona is somewhat six-lobed; the lobes alternating with the segments 
of the perianth on the one side, and with the stamens on the other; again, the divi- 
T laced opposite to the outer segments of the perianth, 
overlap the remaining ones, which oppose the inner pieces of the perianth,—an arrange- 
ment recalling the similar ition of the stamens in the common Polyanthus 
Narcissus, In N. montanus we have seen, for several years in succession, anthers 
latter sometimes divided into segments, not differing 
! 
