Calèche

“ Calyx four-parted, covered with appressed pubes cence; claws linear, yellow, the spoon shaped segments of the limb reddish, nodding. Anthers elliptical, subsessile in the cavities of the calyx. Style twice as long as the calyx, shining, of a deep purple colour except at the base and apex, where it is yellow, deciduous, rigid, apex nodding. Stigma an abrupt, glandular, scarcely-swollen termination to the style, retained for a time within the calyx, as in the other species, and when liberated, covered with the yellow, granular pollen, which gives it a capitate form. ”

“ The 5-parted, pale green calyx is set around with 5 similar leafy bracts. The blossoms, on their little foot-stems, are gathered in close clusters along the ends of the stalk and branches. They exhale a sweet and spicy fragrance.
The plant, with its green and rusty leaves, hugs the earth so closely that often only the tips of the flowery clusters show here and there among the dried leaves, which almost conceal them from their friendly enemies, whose love of their beauty knows no better manner of exhibiting itself than by tearing the vine up by its roots. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The calyx consists of 2 small sepals : the corolla of 4 petals cruciately placed, one or both of the outer ones saccate at the base, the inner ones callous below and coloured at the apex, where they cohere and inclose the anthers and stigma. The stamens are united in two parcels, and placed opposite the outer petals, each parcel composed of a centre perfect, two-celled anther, and 2 one-celled, imperfect or half, anthers; very rarely all separate. Ovary superior one-celled, ovules horizontal. Style filiform, Stigma with two or more points. ”

“ But this thing I know, and this what we call an-cailleach-uisge” (the siren or water-witch) ; “the cailliach, mind you, not the maighdeann-mhàra” (the mermaid) , “who means no harm. May she hear my saying it! The cailliach is old and clad in weeds, but her voice is young, and she always sits so that the light is in the eyes of the beholder. She seems to him young also, and fair. She has two familiars in the form of seals, one black as the grave, and the other white as the shroud that is in the grave; and these sometimes upset a boat, if the sailor laughs at the uisge-cailliach’s song. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Every Blossom is joined to the Tree by a slender Stalk half an Inch or a little more in length; when it is yet in the Bud, it is one Fifth of an Inch broad, and about one fourth or a little more in length: when it was least, in proportion to the Tree and the Fruit, the more strange it appeared to me, and more worthy of Attention. [1]
When the Buds begin to blow, one may consider the Calix, the Foliage, and the Heart of the Blossom. The Calix is formed of the Cover of the Bud, divided into five Parts, or Leaves, of a very pale flesh-colour. ”

“ 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 large flower has 5 long dull red petals rounded at the ends, and folded over the large umbrella-like top of the pistil; beneath this spreading green top is the large seed-case encircled by the many yellow stamens; the 5 spreading parts of the calyx are thick and leathery, of a dull reddish-brown on the outside, and green on the inside, with the brown striking through in places. A single nodding flower grows on the top of a long, smooth, light green stem. ”

“ Ours are usually parasitic on the roots of their neighbors. They have toothless, mostly alternate leaves, mostly without leaf-stalks or stipules, and small flowers, with a four- or five-lobed calyx and no corolla. The four or five stamens are opposite the calyx lobes, at the edge of a fleshy disk, and the ovary is one-celled and inferior, with one style, developing into a one-seeded fruit. ”

“ 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. ”

“ All parts covered both with short pubescence and longer stiff opaque white hairs. General colour of the leaves dark leaden-green, contrasting strongly with the pale racemes. Racemes short, dense. Calyx paler than straw-colour ; segments ovate acuminate, usually with an indurated tip, closely ciliate throughout their length with straight erect white hairs. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It seldom exceeds a foot in height. The flowers are small, a yellow, white and green mixture, the yellow predominating; they are produced in loose spare racemes, on well-foliaged diffuse stems, which are also angular; the calyx is composed of two leaves; the petals are four, forming a snapdragon-like flower. The leaves are bipinnate, leaflets wedge-shape, trifoliate, and glaucous; the foliage very dense, having a pretty drooping habit. It flowers all summer, and is one of the most useful plants in a garden to cut from, the foliage being more valuable than the flowers. ”

“ Chiefly herbs, of homely aspect, more or less succulent, with mostly alternate leaves and no stipules nor scarious bracts, minute greenish flowers, with the free calyx imbricated in the bud; the stamens as many as its lobes, or occasionally fewer, and inserted opposite them or on their base; the 1-celled ovary becoming a 1-seeded thin utricle or rarely an achene. Embryo coiled into a ring around the mealy albumen, when there is any, or else conduplicate, or spiral.—Calyx persistent, mostly enclosing the fruit. ”

“ The large wide leaf is heart-shaped or rounded, with an entire margin, and strongly marked by the ribs and veins; the upper surface is velvety to the touch, while it is rough and woolly underneath, and the color is a strong green, whitish beneath. The stem is stout, erect, and slightly woolly. Two or three leaves only are borne on the summit of the stalk.
The flower has no petals; the calyx is shaped like a deep, round cup, 3-parted at the top, with curling margins. It is coarse and firm in texture, with a hairy surface ”

“ 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. ”

“ Skin lively greenish yellow in the shade, with stripes and splashes of bright red in the sun, and pretty large russet specks. Stalk long and slender, planted in a wide cavity, and inclined to one side. Calyx small, in a broad basin, moderately sunk. Flesh white, exceedingly tender and juicy, with a sprightly, pleasant, though not high flavor. Young wood of a shoot lively light brown, and the trees are very hardy, and the most rapid growers and prodigious early bearers that we know—the branches being literally weighted down by the rope-like clusters of fruit. ”

“ 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 flowers are about a third of an inch long, the calyx, which is the conspicuous part, dark-purple or pinkish-red and slightly irregular, with three large and two small sepals, and the petals of the same color, but so narrow that they look like long curling filaments. The three stamens are opposite the three upper sepals, the ovary is superior and the capsule has two long beaks. Young plants often spring from the base of the leaf, where it joins the leaf-stalk, and this habit gives the common name. ”

“ The bright crimson-red sub-globular, berry-like fruit consists of the much-enlarged fleshy calyx which surrounds the small thin-walled many-seeded capsule. The plant is a native of shady woods on sandy soil, especially in mountainous districts, in southern Canada and the northern United States; it is quite hardy in England. ”

“ Mr. Salisbury's rule, given in the first paper of our 8th volume, that the stamens are never inserted into the calyx, is one of the best upon the subject, yet not without its difficulties, some of which, from a love of truth alone, I beg leave to suggest. If we admit this rule in rosaceous flowers, and the more I have thought on the subject the more I feel disposed to do so, we can hardly allow it in Ribes, whose whole faded calyx, perfectly homogeneous and indivisible, sticks to the top of the fruit, retaining the withered petals and stamens, which are together inserted into its sides. ”

“ Stamens many, springing from the side of the tube or throat of the calyx, sometimes joined to the petals, generally equal in length; anthers small and oblong. Ovary smooth, or covered with scales and spines, or woolly, one-celled; style simple, filiform or cylindrical, with a stigma of two or more spreading rays, upon which are small papillae. Fruit pulpy, smooth, scaly, or spiny, the pulp soft and juicy, sweet or acid, and full of numerous small, usually black, seeds.
Tribe I.—Calyx tube produced beyond the Ovary. Stem covered with Tubercles, or Ribs, bearing Spines. ”