PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY.

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what is developed, and from what this is derived; and thephysiological examination of the species follows last. NowI confess that I am unacquainted with any manual ofbotany which, with aphoristic brevity, fulfils its design soadmirably, as the ‘Principles of Botany’ of Endlicher andUnger. My disagreement with the authors in a few, infact, in many of their theories, is nothing to the point, for,in so extensive a field, it is impossible always to meetwith accuracy. Schleiden finds fault, e. g. with the dis-tinction which the authors make between a conical and adiscoid receptacle, when speaking of the floral receptacle,and puts a variety of questions, which in my opinion may beeasily answered. The discoid receptacle is furnished be-neath the ovary with an annular ridge, which is absent inthe conical receptacle, and if I understand the authorscorrectly, they regard this as an indication of anotherinternode of the stem which commences there. Thus theyhave explained the presence of the various parts situatedbeneath the ovary, for by explanation we signify the illus-tration of the essential connexion of phenomena. But Idoubt whether an appendage does not always exist beneaththe ovary, indicating the origin of another internode.

Schleiden ’s theory of the internodes of the stem, meri-thalles, as they are called by the Trench in their usualmanner, by a barbarous term derived from the Greek andin opposition to all analogy, is old. The place where aleaf and a bud exist, was called a node, and this wasregarded as the commencement of an internode. In theGrasses, each node is evidently the commencement of aninternode; in the Palms, internodes are closely crowdedand somewhat less easily recognised ; the nodes and theinternodes are also distinguishable in the Labiatse, theCaryophyllaceae , &c., which have opposite leaves, whilstin plants with alternate leaves, they run into each other.If we consider the term node to denote the articulation,we might say with Endlicher and Unger, that in theconical receptacle, there is no node situated above thestamens, until we come to the ovary, whilst in the discoidreceptacle, one does exist.