The Vegetable World: Being a History of Plants, with Their Botanical Descriptions and Peculiar Properties

and that the pieces of the internal whorl are developed simultaneously. It has been decided from this fact that, in spite of appearances, there is in the Lily a calyx and a corolla; in other words, the Lily has a petaloid corolla. In Rushes, on the other hand, contrary ” to what takes place in the Lily, we find a sort of double calyx. Considerations analogous to those mentioned have led botanists to concede to these plants a true We must corolla.

Fig. 176.—Petaloide corolla of Lilium, admit, then, that in _ ® the Lily the calyx is white and petaloid, and in Rushes that the corolla is green and sepaloid. Let us glance at the principal forms of the corolla when it is monopetalous and regular. The six principal forms which the corolla assumes need not be otherwise described than by the annexed figures and the denominations which indicate them. The corolla is infundibuliform, that is, like a funnel, in the Tobacco-plant (Fig. 177), tubular in the Comfrey (Fig. 178), campanulate or bell-shaped in Bindweed (Fig. 179) and the Campanula, hypocrateriform or salver-shaped in the Lilac (Fig. 180) or in the Jessamine, rosaceous in Borage (Fig. 181) or in the Willow-herb, urceolate or urn-shaped in the Arbutus (Fig. 182). When the corolla is monopetalous ‘and irregular, its principal _ forms are reduced to three. In the Sage (Fig. 183), or the Dead Nettle, &c., the limb of the corolla placed at the summit of a more or less elongated tube is divided transversely into two parts called lips (/abia); the upper lip, presenting two divisions, is formed by two petals united almost to the summit; the lower lip, presenting three divisions, is formed by three petals joined more or less high

Fig. 177.—Tobacco-plant.

Fig. 178.—Tubular corolla of Comfrey Officinale.

Fig. 179.—Corolla of Bindweed.

Fig. 180.—Hypocrateriform corolla of Lilac.

Fig. 181.—Rosaceous corolla of Borage.

Fig. 182.—Urceolate corolla of Arbutus.

Fig. 183.—Bilabiate corolla of the Sage (Salvia).

Fig. 184.—Corolla of Snapdragon.

Fig. 185.—Ligulate corolla of the Dandelion.

up. This form of corolla, said to be /adiate, characterises a very important group of the vegetable kingdom. _In the Snap-dragon (Fig. 184) the mouth of the labiate corolla, instead of being wide open, is closed by a swelling of the upper lip. _ “Among the irregular monopetalous plants,” says Jean Jacques Rousseau, “ there is a family whose appearance is so marked, that we can easily distinguish its members by their look. It is that to which we give the name of gaping plants, because their flowers are divided by two lips, the opening of which, whether natural or produced by a slight pressure of the fingers, gives them the look of a gaping mouth. This family is subdivided into two sections or races, one with flowers having lips, or Jabiate, the other with flowers in a mask, or personate, for the Latin word persone signifies a mask—a very fit name, assuredly, for most of those whom we call persons.” In the Endive, or the Dandelion (Fig. 185), the corolla, cylindrical at its lower part, is bent on one side, and displays a little flat tongue, terminating in several small teeth. This form © corolla is said to be ligulated, and belongs to a considerable number of plants composing the largest natural group in all the — vegetable kingdom, that of the Compositee.

In regular polypetalous corollas, Tournefort distinguished three principal forms, which we meet with in a great number of flower’, in general those of the same family. 2 Cruciform corollas have four petals ar- te =) ranged in a cross, and generally provided with a claw—the characteristic peculiar to plants of the group of Cruciferee. Fig. 186 represents the cruciform corolla of the Mustard Plant. Caryophyllaceous corollas have five _ petals, with a very long claw, hidden by the calyx. No. 187 represents a corolla of this kind, that of the Pink. The rosaceous ©0-

Fig. 186.—Cruciform corolla of Mustard. rollas have five petals without /oohs, and open, arranged as in the Common Rose. (Fig. 188.)

Tournefort also classed all the modifications of the irregular, polypetalous corolla, under two names: these were papilionaceous

and anomalous corollas. The Pea (Figs. 189 and 190) has papi-

Fig. 187.—Caryophyllaceous corolla of the Pink. Fig. 188.—Rosaceous corolla of the Red Rese. lionaceous, the Aconite an anomalous, corolla. Let us dwell a little on the first of these shapes.

“The first portion of the corolla,” says Rousseau, in his third “Letter on Botany,” “is a large and broad petal ry covering the others, and occupying the upper part of the corolla, for which reason this large pe has taken the name of canopy. It is also called \ the Standard. We must close both our eyes and our minds not to perceive that this petal is placed there as an umbrella to guard that which it covers from atmospheric injuries. By lifting up this Fig.189—Papilionaceous canopy, you will remark, that it is jointed into the side pieces on each side by a little ear, in such a manner, that its position cannot be disturbed by the wind.

“The canopy being removed, discovers the two lateral limbs to which it was attached by its Aime little ear pieces. You will find, on detaching them, that they are fastened still more strongly into the remaining part, and cannot be separated from it without some effort. So the Fig. 190.—Separate parts of the corolla of the Pea.

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wings are not at all less useful in strengthening the sides of the flower, than the canopy is in covering it. When the wings are taken away, you see the last piece of the corolla, the piece which covers and defends the centre of the flower, and envelopes it, especially over it, as carefully as the three other petals envelope it above and at the sides. This last piece, which, 6n account of its shape, is called the heel, is like a strong box in which nature places its treasure beyond the reach of injuries arising from the air and water.” Rousseau describes here the flower of the Pea, as an application of the principles which he had first laid down.

THe STAMENs.

Immediately within the petals is a fleshy disk, which has grown round the ovary, and from which spring the petals and stamens-the latter, the organs of reproduction and essential parts of the plant. They are placed within the corolla, and immediately surround the central point or pistil. They vary greatly in number, from one to fifty, and even more. They occupy the third verticil of the floral organs. The stamen generally consists of two parts, an upper and thick portion, and a lower portion generally elongated and slender.’ e The former is called the anther; the latter the filament. filament is much less important than the anther, and is often wanting. The rudiment of the anther is at first a cellular mass, but when it has attained a given size, larger cells appear in its interior, usually at four distant points. By their augmentation four separate clusters are produced, around which smaller cells = arranged in a given order, forming a special cellular cover: In due time these absorb the surrounding cellular matter. Sometimes they unite into two masses (two becoming one) by the absorption of the cellular matter between them. In these cells pollen is now formed by the division of each cell, first into gh and then into four smaller cells, which gradually change into pollen, the mother cells being either absorbed or remaining in the

form of filamentary gelatinous elastic matter among the ripe pollen. The several parts of the anther are distinguished by the term connective, which is the direct continuation of the filamen in the anther. The lobes of the anther are its halves, each half being a lobe or hollow cavity called a cell, being distinguished as many or single celled. It can easily be understood of the connective that if the filament and the connective were prolonged in the same direction, and of nearly the same thickness, as in the Iris (Fig. 191), the anther would be immovable, but that this would not be the case if the connective were inserted in the attenuated extremity of the filament by a point only, as happens in the Amaryllis (Fig. 192). It will also be understood that the powdery matter contained in the cells of the anther is pollen, or fine dust. That the membranous sides or walls of the cells of the anther are its valves, and that the lines which pass down the sides of the anther are the sutures or seams. We have stated above that the anther is generally StamensofTis formed of two lobes, yet in some plants the anthers are wnilocular; either the two lobes existing at first have been blended in one, or there was actually but one lobe, as in the Epacridacee, a family of elegant heaths from New Holland. In _ other plants, as the a and the Ephedra, the anthers are guadrilocu In the art of pera the lobes of the anther open at the sectures in order to discharge the fertilising pollen. Generally each lobe presents a longitudinal cleft, along which the opening of the anther takes place, this being called its dehiscence, in botanical language. Sometimes the cleft only extends a short — towards the summit of the lobe, and consti-utes a sort of pore, as we see in the Heaths and Sclanums (Fig. 193), —— In the Barberry (Fig. 194) and the Laurel (Fig. 195) a very remarkable and elegant mode of dehiscence is observable: a certain restricted portion of the walls of the anther opens upwards, So as to form little trap-doors or valves. There is one valve for L