64 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1889. 



stipules (or dilated bases of petioles), it will not be surprising if in- 

 stances should be adduced where these organs are evidently modi- 

 fied leaf-blade rather than stipular. Nature seems so exhaustive 

 in her efforts at variety, that though the morphologist should be 

 able to prove his position in the greater percentage of cases, he 

 learns, by experience, that " never" and " always" are dangerous 

 terms. 



With this clearly conceived nature of bud-scales and floral en- 

 velopes before us, Ave get a nobler view of the office they have to 

 perform in the economy of plant-life. We cease to look on them 

 as mere " appendages" of so little account as to be usually dismissed 

 with a few words in treatises on structural and morphological botany. 

 They are the police force of vegetation, the defenders of the weak, 

 the protectors of infancy in the vegetable world. From the scale of 

 a Lily bulb, to the full-formed petal of the beautiful rose, we see the 

 self-same chord with myriads of tones in perfect harmony. It is a 

 good illustration of the unity of plan on which nature rings such 

 varied changes. 



And this conception of the nature and the office of stipules har- 

 monizes the morphological conceptions heretofore prevailing as to 

 the formation of the flower. We have long since ceased to say that 

 a flower is modified leaves ; we now teach that a whole branch is 

 modified when nature undertakes to mould a flower. Now if we 

 propose that bud-scales are modified stipules, and that their office is 

 protection, when the organs of a branch are so modified as to pro- 

 duce a flower, the stipular conceptions should lead to protection 

 also ; and this is conceded to be the chief duty of sepals and petals. 

 They are mainly for the protection of the tender parts they enclose. 



Bud scales and the floral envelopes are modified stipules, and 

 their office is protection to weaker portions of the plant structure. 



On parallel habits in allied species from widely separated localities. 

 In a paper published in the Proceedings of the Academy for 1862, 

 page 10, the author of this paper pointed out that the varia- 

 tions in many allied species of Europe and America were always 

 in the same line. For instance, if a European species had 

 shorter internodes, larger buds, more serrate or thicker leaves, 

 duller foliage in the fall, denser growth of branches than an Amer- 

 ican ally, species of other genera would also differ in the same com- 

 parative characters. In other words, the variations in character 



