‘THE FLOWER AND ITS PARTS ed 
spores appear. The flowering plants have carried the 
same principle much further. Seeds are formed only on 
one particular branch, the flower stalk, and the parts of 
the flower themselves are composed of peculiarly modified 
leaves. This is an important point to bear in mind. The 
flower is not a sudden new appearance in nature, with 
nothing like it before, but is merely a development of 
leaves. The proof of this is too long to set forth here, 
and largely depends upon the evidence given by micro- 
scopic examination, but part of the evidence you can 
DIAGRAM OF FLOWER, 
BUTTERCUP, 
note for yourselves. This evidence is given by the 
“monstrous” or eccentric forms that one occasionally 
finds in a flower, where part of the usually brightly- 
coloured section has refused to follow the ordinary pro- 
cedure, and obstinately remains green and leafy. By 
cultivation, moreover, the different parts of the flower 
may all be changed into one type, as, for instance, the 
wild rose of the fields becomes the gardener’s rose, the 
Buttercup becomes the Bachelor’s Button, and the wild 
cherry is modified into the Double Cherry, which makes 
an ornamental tree, but, for a reason that You will soon 
understand, can never produce fruit or seed. 
