Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 8 (1807).djvu/25

 5 they can only be distinguished by having no Antherae : nay in Canna, we have even an instance of the male parts of the flower passing into the female, where the innermost lacinia of the Co- rolla to which the Anthera is attached, always coalesces more or less, so as to form one and the same lamina with the dilated pe- taloid Style. Jussieu adopts the Linnaean definitions of Calyx and Corolla somewhat amplified; but in his practice, if I may use a vulgar expression, he does not stick to his text. He says, " Calyx integumentum floris exterius, est corticosa pedunculi floralis " ''productio. Corolla, interius tegumen, pedunculi libra non epider-'' " midi continuum, non persistens, sed cum staminibus plerumque deci- " duum fructum involvit aut coronat, nunquam cum ipso concrescens, " et suas partes cum staminibus numero aqualibus sapius alternans." He then quotes Narcissus as an example of an- integument, which growing to the fruit with stamina opposed to its divisions, must consequently be a true Calyx. Here I think that consummate Botanist mistaken: for, the Spatha appears to me the first expan- sion of what has been hitherto erroneously called Epidermis, and to supply the place of a more perfect Calyx in that Natural Fa- mily : nor can I see that the integument is joined to the Pericar- pium in a different way from that of many other truly epigynous flowers among the Dicotyledones: lastly, what weighs with me more than every other consideration is the affinity of the part in question to the Stamina, a character the importance of which Jussieu owns in strong terms ; " Corolla magna cum staminibus cog- natio" is his expression. I was glad to find these sentiments cor- roborated by Mirbel, who runs into the other extreme however; for he says, that as the Calyx is a continuation of the bark, and that many of the Monocotyledones have no bark at all, in those genera which have only a single integument it must necessarily be Corolla. He also proposes that the integument of all flowers, whether