318 PLANTS CALLED COMPOSITE.
they are equal in number to the divisions of calyx and corolla united; and moreover, in such families where it consists of distinct parts, these parts are placed where an addition to the number of stamina is least likely to take place, as in Crassulacece. Here, however, as in many other cases, the divisions of the disk are opposite to the ovaria ; they may therefore be supposed more intimately con- nected with the pistilla than with the stamina ; an opinion which is I believe held, though not yet published, by the ingenious M. Decandolle with respect to Ranunculacea. In support of this opinion it may be noticed that in Paonia Moidan, where the disk or urceolus is in the state of the greatest development, when a multiplication of the pistilla takes place, which in the double-flowered varieties of this 142] species it not unfrequently does by the addition of one or more inner series, the rudiments of an analogous disk are produced along with each of the additional series.
Yet, in opposition to this view, I have in a single instance found one of the divisions of the urceolus in Pceonia Moutan changed into an anthera ; and the divisions of the ap- parently analogous organ in Aquilegia, which in their usual state resemble barren filaments, have sometimes been observed with perfect antherse. 1
1 Schkuhr Ha dbuch, tab. 146.
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