Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/294

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DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN

opinion that no absolute means of distinction between these two parts can be pointed out, except colour; of the insufficiency of which he is aware. If however the Corolla performs functions with respect to light which the Calyx does not, and those functions are indicated by its colour, a distinction founded on such a principle is both correct and philosophical. We must then conclude that in most liliaceous plants, not in all, the two organs are united into one, and indeed the outside is often green and coarse like a Calyx, the inner coloured and delicate; witness Ornithogalum, t. 21, 130 and 499, Narthecium, t. 535, &c. Linnæus has the same idea respecting Daphne, t. 119 and 1381, and the analogy is confirmed by Gnidia, which is a Daphne with petals. In Trollius, t. 28, and Helleborus, t. 200 and 613, Linnæus considers as petals what Jussieu, following Vaillant, thinks a Calyx. Of these plants we shall soon have occasion to speak again.

I cannot but consider as a sort of Corolla the Calyptra of Veil of Mosses, which Linnæus reckons a Calyx. Schreber, very deep and critical in his inquiries concerning