FORMATION OF THE FLOWER. 19 
often is, in this manner, multiplied indefinitely, by the dissevered parts of itself, 
as well as by the seed. 
23. But, remaining connected with the parent stock, axillary 
buds, a part or all of them, according to circumstances, are de- 
veloped into branches, each of which may again generate buds 
and branchlets in the axils of its own leaves, in the same 
manner. 
a. Thus, by the repetition of this simple process, the vegetable fabric is reared 
from the earth, a compound being, formed of as many united individuals as there 
are buds, and as many buds as there are branches and leaves, ever advancing in 
the direction of the growing points, by the deposition of matter derived from the 
cellular tissue, clothing itself with leaves as it advances, and enlarging the diam 
eter of its axis by the deposition of matter elaborated by, and descending from, 
the leaves already developed, until it reaches the limits of the existence assigned 
it by its Creator. 
6. But the plant, reared by this process alone, would consist only of those parts 
requisite to its own individual existence, without reference to the continuance of 
its species beyond its own dissolution. It would be simply an axis, expanded 
into branches and leaves. But the Divine command, which first caused the tribes 
of vegetation, in their diversified beauty, to spring from the earth, required that 
each plant should have its ‘seed within itself? for the perpetuation of its kind. 
24. At certain periods of its vegetation, therefore, a change is 
observed to occur in the plant, in regard to the development of 
some of its buds. From the diminished or altered supply of 
sap, received from the vessels below, the growing point ceases 
to lengthen in the direction of the axis, but expands its leaves 
in crowded and concentric whorls; each successive whorl, pro- 
ceeding from the outer to the inner, undergoing a gradual trans 
formation from the original type (a leaf), according to the 
purpose it is destined to fulfil in the production of the seed. 
Thus, instead of a leafy branch, the ordinary progeny of a bud, 
a flower is the result. 
25. A flower may, therefore, be considered as a transformed 
branch, having the leaves crowded together by the non-devel- 
opment of the axis, and moulded into more delicate structures, 
and tinged with more brilliant hues, not only to adom and 
beautify the face of nature, but to fulfil the important office of 
reproduction. 
a. In the common peony, for example, as the leaves approach the summit of 
the stem, they gradually lose their characteristic divisions, and, at length, just 
