POLYSEPALOUS, AND GAMOSEPALOUS CALYX. 987 
acup round a number of flowers, and bear also the 
same name of involucre (pl. 6. f. 5. b.). On the cup 
of the Acorn, may be seen a number of scale-like 
points, these are so many bracts, which have united to 
form a hard cup, called a cupule (pl. 12. f. 10.). But 
in the Hazel Nut, and Filbert, they are much larger and 
leafy, and hold the nut inside them (f.11.). In the 
Beech and Spanish Chesnut, the bracts form the hard- 
ened spiny covering of the fruit. 
OF THE CALYX. 
42. The Calyx is the outermost of four sets of 
organs which compose a flower; it may consist of two 
or more small green leafy parts, placed in a circle 
below the rest of the flower, as in the Wallflower, 
Buttercup, Pimpernel (pl. 13. f. 1.). When thus 
constituted, these divisions of the calyx are termed 
sepals; and the calyx is described as consisting of two, 
three, four, five, &e. sepals; the usual term applied to 
it is, that it is a polysepalous, or a calyx of many sepals. 
But the calyx is in many instances composed of a like 
number of parts, which are united together so as to 
form a cup, or tube, in which the rest of the flower is 
contained. Thus, in the Pink (f. 2.), Primrose (f. 3.), 
Cowslip, &e. the calyx is a tube with five angular teeth 
at the top, which indicate the number of sepals or 
parts of which it is composed, the union of these parts 
not having extended to the points. Such a calyx is 
termed a gamosepalous calyx, or a calyx with the 
sepals united. Tence the calyx will be found to differ 
very much in its form, &c. according as its divisions or 
