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receptacle; or consisting of many chaffy scales, ranged along a stalk slender as a thread, which is the common receptacle."*

Let (a), for instance, Fig. 69., be the filiform receptacle. It is naked; but suppose it to be clothed on every side with chaffy scales, as at (b), and then you will have some idea of its usual appearance. These squamæ or scales, are the calyxes of the fructification, and in the axilla of each is contained a certain number of stamens, or pistils, as magnified at (c), so that each scale or calyx, with these accompaniments, is to be considered as a distinct flower.

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SPATHA, a spathe, or sheath.

The arum, or cuckoo-pint (Arum maculatum), is well known to most persons. It is in fructification in the month of May, and then is seen frequently along the banks of rivulets shaded by trees, or on the borders of highways, about the bottoms of

* Martyn.

hedges, &c. It has a ridiculous resemblance to an image standing in a case, and hence has received the vulgar names of Jack in a box, and Jack in the pulpit. Now, the club-shaped part (a), Fig. 70., which represents the image, is the SPADIX; and the membranous enclosure (b), in which it stands, is the SPATHE. In the palm tribes the SPADIX is branched, and often bears an immense quantity of fruit; since on one raceme of a Seje palm Humboldt estimated the flowers at forty-four thousand, and the fruits at eight thousand.*

The SPATHE is found in many of the lily tribes, and in many well-known garden plants, Fig. 70. (c);` for it is not necessary that it should always be accompanied by a spadix; the latter indeed is rather an uncommon circumstance, the spadix being confined to the palms, the arum, and some plants allied to the latter.

Fig. 70.

* Pers. Nar. vol. v. p. 152.

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Sometimes the flowers grow from the surface, or from the margin of the leaves, forming a foliar inflorescence: as in butcher's broom (Ruscus), and Osyris Japonica, in which they grow on the surface, and Xylophylla, or sea-side laurel, and Phyllanthus, in which they grow on the margin. "Most remarkable is the manner in which the flower is placed in a tree of the East Indies, called Cynometra cauliflora. This very leafy tree has no flowers, but at the foot of its stem; its leafy top never produces any." *

COROLLA (corona, a crown, corolla, a little crown, or chaplet, Lat.).

It may consist of from one to any number of petals. We shall first attend to that of one petal, or the monopetalous corolla. Strip the perianth from a primrose, or pull off the corolla, and you will observe that the latter consists of a tube, Fig. 71. (e), the mouth of which expands into a broad border (d). TUBUS, or tube, is the botanical term for the former, and LIMBUS, or limb, for the latter. These parts vary exceedingly; the tube is often extremely short, but still, as Willdenow remarks, all monopetalous corollas have a tube, except the campanulate and some of the rotate, or wheel-shaped corollas. The tube in the primrose is straight, but in many plants it is bent, and we might select examples of it having every degree of curvature, from a gentle inclination, to an almost * Willdenow's Princ. p. 309.

perfect circle. In some it is very long, as in the Long-flowered Gardenia (Gardenia longiflora); and in many it is scarcely perceptible.

1. COROLLA campanulata, a campanulate, or bell-shaped corolla. (Campanula, a little bell, Lat.) Fig. 71. (b)

2. COROLLA cyathiformis, a cyathiform, or cupshaped corolla. (Cyathus, a drinking-cup or glass, Lat.) (c)

Fig. 71.

d

3. COROLLA infundibuliformis, funnel-shaped (infundibulum, a funnel, Lat.), as in Portlandia grandiflora, Fig. 72.

The campanulate corolla widens gradually from the base to the margin with a bend outwards, in form of a bell, The cyathiform differs from it in not having this bend; the infundibuliform corolla has just been explained, but the limits between it and the cyathiform are vague.

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4. COROLLA hypocrateriformis (xpalnp (krater), an ancient cup or salver), a hypocrateriform, or salvershaped corolla.

5. COROLLA rotata, a rotate, or wheel-shaped corolla. (Rota, a wheel, Lat.)

These differ from each other in the former having a tube, the latter little or none. The corolla of the primrose is hypocrateriform; cut its tube off and you immediately make it rotate.

6. COROLLA ringens, or labiata; a ringent, or labiate corolla (ringo, to gape,-labium, a lip, Lat.).

"An irregular one-petalled corolla, the border of which is usually divided into two parts, called the upper and lower lip. [Fig 78. (a, b)] The first has sometimes the name of Galea, or Helmet; the second of Barba, or Beard. The opening between them is called Rictus, or the Gape (c); the opening of the tube, Faux, the Throat or Jaws; the pro

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