Zbc 3Beauti2 ot tbc ^flower 95 



numerous petals, snowy white, to attract insect 

 guests ; fragrant, also, to attract them ; green-sepaled 

 to preserve the life and beauty of the flower from the 

 water until the ovules were fertilized, and this so- 

 called process of degeneration has given us the large, 

 pure, sweet white water lily. Was it, all things con- 

 sidered, really a degeneration ? 



Roses show us this change of stamens to petals. 

 The normal rose has five large petals, braced by five 

 strong, small, green sepals united over the ovary, and 

 in the centre of this beauteous whorl numerous 

 stamens. Now among the double roses we often find 

 bent petals, with a more or less well-defined stamen 

 upon one edge. Such developments are not freaks 

 or sports of nature ; they are the stages of a process. 

 The pollen is so fine a dust that its several grains 

 have no particular definition to the naked eye — it is 

 merely yellow, brown, black, reddish, or purple dust, 

 no more. Put the ripened stamen under a powerful 

 microscope, and we are whirled off as by enchant- 

 ment into fairy-land ; never had royal princess such 

 necklace or tiara, never had queen such crown, never 

 wore any hand such jewels as are here displayed. 

 What do we see here ? Woven and chiseled gold ; 

 pearls, diamonds, rubies, all instinct with life, flash- 

 ing, glowing, palpitating, like water in a vase ; here 

 are the crown jewels, treasured up in the sacred 



