the Brodiæa, used the word bracteæ instead of spathæ, as more agreeable to nature.
These difficulties do not trouble the generality of practical botanists; but theoretical ones, before they can found new genera, or even understand the old ones to any purpose, are, and always have been, oblidged to consider them, and may be glad of any suggestions on subjects concerning which the chief leaders in botany have never agreed together, nor scarcely been consistent with themselves. I am persuaded the line of discrimination betwixt a calyx and corolla is, in many cases, not to be drawn, for this plain reason, that Nature in such cases unites both the parts into one, the inner surface performing the functions of a corolla, the outer those of a calyx. This is a suggestion of Linnæus, but he has not illustrated it so fully as it deserves. I need not repeat here what is already before the public in another place, Introduction to Botany, 264, 266, and 267; nor shall I now add any thing more than a wish, that a subject so interesting to the physiological as well as the systematical botanist might be pursued by both to their mutual assistance.
Norwich, March 3, 1808.
