1195. As the calyx is more incomplete than the corolla, so it has usually but three lobes, and if it has five, then they are frequently placed irregularly.
1196. The developmental stages of the calyx are also three. Corresponding to the scale-like leaf or bract, it is only squamiform, as in the catkins of the hazel and fir-cones; corresponding to the spathe-leaf, it is tubular or unisepalous; corresponding to the reticular leaf, it is multisepalous, and mostly deciduous.
1197. The tubular calyx exhibits likewise three stages of development. At first it is scale-like, confluent with the ovary or epigynous—ovarial corollæ. It is next spathe-like, simply connected with the corolla or perigynous—calycine corollæ. Lastly, it resembles the reticular-veined leaf, being free from both the above organs, or hypogynous—pedunculate corollæ.
c. Corolla.
1198. From the character of the corolla or crown as being a ramular leaf all its properties admit of being deduced. It is the upper leaf-bud, inasmuch as the ramular leaves stand above those of the stalk. It is, on this account too, the internal, inasmuch as the lower leaves admit within them the upper.
1199. The corolla is homologous with the whole mass of the petiolated or ramular leaves. Thus their arrangement, form, and number taken together are not worth more than the characters of the corolla, nor are they worth less, because they are relations of deeper organs.
1200. The corolla stands also in a whorl, because it is the totality of leaves.
1201. The laws of the leaf-formation are also the laws of the corolla-formation. The corolla will therefore represent at one time a greater, at another a less, ramified leaf-system.
1202. The corolla is the last verticil in the series of leaf-whorls; for it represents the last leaf-form, and must fade, because the tissues have completely separated from each other, namely, the tracheæ as stamina, from the cells that constitute corolla leaflets or petals. No part can carry on life by or for itself.
1203. The parts of the corolla range in an alternating manner with those of the calyx, because they are the next supra-consecutive bud.