Calyx

“ The males are in little clusters, which are borne at intervals along a hanging stalk, two or three inches in length. They are green, and therefore inconspicuous; but examined separately, they will be found to have a definite calyx, whose margin is cut into an uncertain number (4-7) of lobes. There are no petals, but attached to the sides of the calyx there are ten stamens. The female flowers are fewer, and will be found on short erect stalks above the male catkins. Each female flower consists of a calyx, invested by a number of overlapping scales, and enclosing an ovary with three styles. ”

“ The Marvel of Peru (Mirabilis Jalapa) , and the other species of that genus, are the only ornamental plants belonging to this order. The flowers consist of a coloured calyx, surrounded by a five-toothed involucre, which greatly resembles a calyx. The true calyx is funnel-shaped, with a spreading limb, the lobes of which are plaited, and notched at the margin; and which, with the tubular part, form at the base a globular swelling, which incloses the ovary. The stamens grow from beneath the pistil, adhering together at the base, so as to form a kind of cup. The ovary contains only one seed ”

“ In reality, it belongs to a closely allied genus. But in this blossom the bracts do not constitute the brilliant part of the inflorescence, and the calyx, instead of being the showy, sheathing envelop it is in the paint-brush, is quite small and inconspicuous.
Mrs. Blochman has quaintly and aptly alluded to the corolla of this flower as a long and slender mitten, just fit for some high-born fairy's hand.
Among the children of our mountain districts this flower is known as "Indian warrior." ”

“ Flowers axillary, solitary or racemose. Calyx-tube short, lobes 4–5. Petals 4–5, rarely wanting, inserted on the throat of the calyx. Corona of one or several rings of coloured filaments arising from the calyx-tube. Stamens as many as the calyx-lobes; filaments adnate to the stalk of the ovary; anthers versatile. Ovary superior, elevated on a long stalk or gynophore, 1-celled; styles 3; stigmas capitate. Fruit succulent or pulpy, indehiscent or obscurely 3-valved.
A large genus of over 120 species, chiefly tropical, and most plentiful in South America. ”

“ In the centre is a group of carpels; outside them—in other words, slightly lower on the stem—a ring, or two rings, of stamens, few or many; then a ring of petals, forming the corolla, usually coloured, leaf-like, and conspicuous; and outside of them a ring of sepals, forming the calyx, generally green and leaf-like. The main function of the calyx is protective; it encloses the essential organs and guards them till they are mature, when the flower opens and stamen and stigma play their parts. ”

“ It is proper to a labiate flower,—first, that it has a one-leaved calyx (ut calycem habeat unifolium) , for the most part tubulated, or reminding one of a paper hood (cucullum papyraceum) ; and, secondly, that its pistil ripens into a fruit consisting of four seeds, which ripen in the calyx itself, as if in their own seed-vessel, by which a labiate flower is distinguished from a personate one, whose pistil becomes a capsule far divided from the calyx (à calyce longò divisam) . ”

“ Comparatively rarely do we find all the organs present; but when two flowers are united together we find every possible variety between the number of parts naturally belonging to the two flowers and that belonging to a single one. Sometimes instances are met with wherein the calyx does not present the normal number of parts, while the other parts of the flower are in excess. I have seen in a Calceolaria a single calyx, with the ordinary number of sepals, enclosing two corollas, adherent simply by their upper lips, and containing stamens and pistils in the usual way. ”

“ The leaves are opposite, entire, smooth, and of a beautiful green color. The flowers are borne upon short stalks, usually three in number, which extend from the apex of short branches. The calyx is about half an inch long, changing from whitish to greenish, and finally to crimson. The entire calyx is rich in oil glands. The petals are four in number, pink in color, and drop off very readily. The stamens are very numerous. All parts of the plant are aromatic, the immature flowers most of all. ”

“ The calyx consists of five narrow green sepals, with sharp points: these you can see appearing between the edges of the petals as you look down into the flower.
Each flower grows singly on a short, fine stalk, and these flower-stalks always rise between a leaf and the stem. The stem is four-sided, and it is very easily broken. It is a very feeble stem, and straggles along the ground. ”

“ The tube and segments of the calyx are of a pale green colour, segments an inch or more long, finely pointed; the four petals are large, nearly round, and overlapping each other, forming a corolla more than 3in. across; they are satiny in appearance, and transparent, beautifully veined or nerved, the nerves having delicate green basements, from which spring stamens of a like colour, but with anthers 1⁄2in. long, evenly balanced, and furnished with lemon-yellow pollen. ”

“ The normal coloration of the calyx occurs most frequently in polysepalous calyces; teratological coloration, on the other hand, occurs especially in gamosepalous flowers. This assertion is borne out by the frequency of the change in the plants already mentioned, and also in the following:—Campanula persicifolia, Anagallis arvensis, Gloxinia, Syringa persica, [297] Calceolaria, &c. &c. In the last-named plant one or more of the lobes of the calyx may frequently be seen replaced by a slipper-like petal. ”

“ Meiotaxy of the calyx.—As already mentioned, this term is here employed to denote those illustrations in which entire whorls are suppressed. Complete deficiency of the calyx in a dichlamydeous flower seems seldom or ever to occur; the nearest approach to it would be in those cases where the calyx is, as it is termed, "obsolete," but here it is chiefly the limb of the calyx which is atrophied, the lower portion being more or less adherent to the ovary. In what are termed monochlamydeous flowers both calyx and corolla are wanting, as in Salicineæ and many other orders. ”

“ Calyx 4–5-cleft, the lobes recurved, hairy-tufted at base in the male flowers. Stamens 4 or 5, on very short filaments, alternate with as many rounded glands. Fertile flowers with a pear-shaped ovary invested by the adherent tube of the calyx, naked at the flat summit; disk with 5 glands; style short and thick; stigma capitate-flattened. Fruit fleshy and drupe-like, pear shaped; the globose endocarp thin. Embryo small; albumen very oily.—Shrubs or trees, with alternate short-petioled and deciduous leaves; the small greenish flowers in short and simple spikes or racemes. ”

“ This new and very ornamental species is remarkable for having the under lip of the calyx often undivided, and every part of the plant up to the blossom covered with shining close-pressed hairs: nor are they entirely wanting on the blossom; on the lower part of the keel they are very conspicuous, hanging downwards like a little beard. A groove with a fringe on each side runs also along the upper side of the style towards the summit. Two thread-shaped silky stipules rise at the base of every leaf-stalk, and, being reflected backwards, closely embrace the stem. ”

“ Leaves often united at the base. Calyx persistent. Styles stigmatic along the inside. Seeds amphitropous or campylotropous.
Tribe I. SILENEÆ. Sepals united into a tube or cup. Petals (mostly convolute in the bud) and stamens (10) borne on the stipe or stalk of the ovary, the former with slender claws, to the base of which the corresponding filaments often adhere, included in the calyx tube. Seeds numerous.—Stipules none. Flowers often large and showy.
[*] Calyx with scaly bractlets or small leaves at the base. Seeds flattened on the back, attached by their face; embryo nearly straight. ”

“ The 5 divisions of the hairy calyx hug the petals closely, and turn their sharp little tips out under their curve; it is pale, with green veins and margins. The flowers, on their slender stems, are set in pairs, terminally and along the stalk,—but one of the pair comes into bloom at once usually.
The stalk, with all its remarkable vitality, is weak at the root, and the plant is forced to lie somewhat upon the ground or rest against its sturdier neighbors. It takes kindly to indoor potting, and will bloom freely through the winter if kept in a cool place. ”

“ Calyx as in the genus, glanduloso-pilose, tinged with purple, having the dorsal scale much enlarged in fruit. Corolla orange-scarlet, glanduloso-pilose, very long, many times longer than the calyx, the tube much curved, slender in the lower half, gradually widening upwards, so as to be funnel-shaped: the mouth inclining downwards: the limb of two lips, the lower lip ovate, acute, entire, deflexed, the upper much shorter, galeate, obtuse, three-lobed, middle lobe emarginate. ”

“ The calyx has a very flattened form, and is borne on a short stalk, which terminates in a large attaching disc, formerly mistaken for the sucker of a Trematode. The features in which this species differs from other members of the genus are shown by M. Prouho to be correlated with its mode of life. The animal has the habit of lying flat on its back, the disc at the end of its stalk being firmly attached to the skin of the worm, and its short stalk being bent round into a curve so {490}as to bring the calyx into a supine position, with its lophophore directed upwards. ”

“ Calyx petal-like, equally 5-parted, withering and nearly unchanged in fruit. Stamens 8. Styles 3; stigmas capitate. Achene 3-sided, longer than the calyx. Embryo large, in the centre of the albumen, which it divides into 2 parts, with very broad and foliaceous plaited and twisted cotyledons.—Glabrous annuals, with triangular-heart-shaped or halberd-shaped leaves, semicylindrical sheaths, and corymbose racemes or panicles of white flowers, often tinged with green or rose-color. ”

“ Racemes elongated, very many-flowered; the lower flowers often axillary; fruiting pedicels equalling the calyx or longer than it, spreading. Flowers about 1⁄4 in. long, white or white with a yellow eye. Calyx campanulate, hispid with spreading hooked hairs, 5-lobed to the middle; lobes linear-oblong, acute. Corolla-tube funnel-shaped, slightly exceeding the calyx, throat with 5 scales; lobes short, rounded. Anthers included, their tips equalling the corolla-scales. Nutlets broadly ovoid or almost orbicular, pale-brown, sinning.—D.C. Prodr. ”

“ It grows in favourable places to a height of 40 feet, bears a rich evergreen foliage of large oval leaves, and clusters of long, slender crimson flowers growing at the extremity of the twigs. These flowers have their petals concealed in the centre of the calyx opening, but the sepals (false petals or petal-like leaves which often precede the real petals in flowers) stick out in four projections round the mouth of the calyx. These tubular flowers, with their four short sepals at the ends, are in fact the cloves of commerce. ”

“ The receptacle bearing the calyx is sometimes united to the pistil, and enlarges so as to form a part of the fruit, as in the apple, pear, &c. In these fruits the withered calyx is seen at the apex. Sometimes a persistent calyx increases much after flowering, and encloses the fruit without being incorporated with it, becoming accrescent, as in various species of Physalis (fig. 53) ”

“ Skeleton of Calyx and Arm.—In living Crinoidea, with the doubtful exceptions of Holopus and Hyocrinus, the calyx is supposed to be built up originally of four whorls of plates, viz. "infra-basals," "basals," "radials," and "orals," the last named forming the skeleton of the oral valves round the mouth. In the two exceptions named there is no certain evidence of the existence of infra-basals. In living forms the infra-basals coalesce with the uppermost joint of the stem ”

“ Calyx 4–5-toothed. Standard not longer than the wings, its sides reflexed; keel-petals nearly separate, and, like the wings, straight. Stamens 10, distinct. Pod stalked in the persistent calyx, roundish or oblong, inflated, pointed, many seeded.—Perennial herbs, with palmately 3-foliolate (rarely simple) leaves, which generally blacken in drying, and racemed flowers. (Named from βαπτίζω, to dye, from the economical use of some species, which yield a poor indigo.)
[*] Racemes many, short and loose, terminal, often leafy at base, flowers yellow. ”

“ Petioles of equal length with the leaves. Flowers large, axillary, solitary. Calyx double, the outer portion deciduous, consisting of 3 small, acute leaflets inserted on the base of the inner calyx; the inner is bell-shaped, larger than the outer, with 5 inconspicuous, persistent teeth. Corolla four times longer than the calyx, of 5 fleshy, fluted petals, their borders overlapping, much broader above. Stamens very numerous, arranged around and along a column. Filaments long. Anthers of half-moon shape. ”

“ The Atropa comes in among those, that have declinated stamina. According to this method, we shall give its generical characters from the last edition of Linnæus's Genera Plantarum.
The most obvious and essential character of the genus is the globose berry, and open calyx [8] . The general character is as follows.
Atropa Linn. Gen. Plant. Ed. 5. No. 222.
The calyx is a gibbous permanent perianthium, formed of a single leaf divided into five acute segments.
The corolla is formed of a single bell-shaped petal, the tube of which is very short ”