230 



THE FLOWKU. 



a whole blossom into foliaceous parts has been termed chlorosis, from 

 the green color thus assumed. 



431. A somewhat different proof that the blossom is a sort of 

 branch, and its parts leaves, is occasionally furnished by monstrous 

 flowers in the production of a leafy branch from the centre of a flower, 

 or of one ftoiver out of the centre of another (as rose-buds out of 

 roses). Here the receptacle or axis of the flower resumes the 



ordinary A^egetative 

 growth, as in Fig. 

 349, 350. In wet 

 and warm springs, 

 some of the flower- 

 buds of the Pear and 

 Apple are occasion- 

 ally forced into vege- 

 tation, so as com- 

 pletely to break up 

 the flower and change 

 it into an ordinary 

 leafy branch. This 

 proves that the i-ecep- 

 tacle of a flower is of the nature of the stem. 



432. An analogous kind of monstrosity, viz. 

 the development of buds — either into leafy 

 branches or into blossoms (Fig. 351) — in the 

 axils of petals, or even of stamens or pistils, fur- 

 nishes additional evidence that these bodies are of the nature of 



leaves ; for, whatever bears a bud or 

 branch in its axil must represent a leaf 



433. The irresistible conclusion from 

 all such evidence is, that the flower is 

 one of the forms — the ultimate form — 

 under which branches appear ; that the 

 leaves of the stem, the leaves or petals 

 of the floAver, and even the stamens 

 and pistils, are all forms of a common 



349 



FIG. 849. Retrograde metamorphosis of a flower of the Fraxinella of the gardens, from 

 Lindle3'"s Theory of Horticulture j an internode elongated just above the stamens, and bearing 

 a whorl of green leaves. 



FIG. 350. A monstrous pear, prolonged into a leafy branch ; from Bonnet. 



FIG. 351. A flower of False Bittersweet (Celastrus scandeus), producing other flowers in 

 the axils of the petals ; from Turpin. 



