LIFE HISTORIES OF FAMILIAR PLANTS 



bloom sliced through and slightly magnified, and 

 it will be noticed that in the centre is a hollow 

 conical space, and that from the walls enclosing 

 this space spring numerous little short tubes, 

 all very closely and systematically packed to- 

 gether. I now select four of these little tubes, one 

 from very near the top of the rounded mass ; two 

 others from successively lower levels, and finally 

 one from the lowest la5^er ; and in Fig. 3 (Plate 2) 

 you will see these further magnified and arranged 

 in their relative positions. 



Now I may say that each of these little central 

 tubes represents a single flower, or floret, of the 

 camomile ; each is as truly a flower as the rose is 

 the flower of a rose tree, as truly a flower as that 

 produced by the buttercup, bramble, or dog-rose 

 we have previously spoken of ; in fact, each floret 

 constitutes an altogether higher and more advanced 

 type of flower than either of the larger flowers 

 mentioned above, as I will endeavour to show 

 later. 



Darwin has conclusively proved that flowers 

 when cross-fertilised (that is, impregnated by 

 pollen from the stamens of other flowers of 

 their species), produce better seed, and in greater 

 quantity than when self-fertilised {i.e.j impregnated 

 with their own pollen), and it follows that those 

 plants whose structures are best adapted to effect 

 cross-pollination necessarily make greater progress 

 and become better fitted to survive in the struggle 

 for existence. 



Now, primitive flowers, before the advent of 



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