170 



THE FLOWER. 



intermediate forms. The gradual transition from ordinary foli- 

 age to bracts and bractlets is exceedingly common. In color 



and texture it is not rare to 

 meet with bracts which vie 

 , with, or indeed surpass, pet- 

 als themselves in delicacy and 

 brightness; and in such cases 

 they assume a principal oilire 

 of flower-leaves, that of con- 

 spicuous show for attraction. 

 Scarlet Sage, Painted-Cup 

 (Castilleia), and the I'oin- 

 settia. with other Euphorbias 

 of the conservatories, are ex- 

 amples of this. In the (lowers 

 of Barberry, it is by a nearly 

 arbitrary selection that bractlets are distinguished from sepals : 

 in Calycanthus, in many kinds of Cactus, and in Nelumbium, 



the same is true 

 as to bractlets, se- 

 pals, and petals ; in 

 Water-Lily (Nym- 

 plitva, Fig. :'>!*). 

 there is a gradual 

 transition from the 

 sepals through the 

 IIJI /fll petals to stamens : 



rfc ' //// 



// //a in Lilies and most 



// / // 



1 /f* / lily-like flowers, se- 

 \ If pals are as brightly 



(I colored as petals, 



and commonly more 

 or less combined 

 with them. When 

 the perianth-leaves are of only one set, it is not at all by color or 

 texture that this perianth can be assigned to calyx or to corolla. 

 Normal transitions from a stamen to a pistil could not, in the 

 nature of the case, he expected. 



.".os. Tcratolofrical Transitions aiid Changes. Teratology is 

 the study of monstrosities. These in the vegetable kingdom 



818 



FIG. 317. Cactus-flower (Mamillaria caespitosa), with bractlets, sepals, and petals 

 passing into o.-icli other. 



FK J. 318. Series exhibiting transition from sepals to stamens in Nymphsea odorata. 



