88 THE STORY OF THE PLANTS. 



bright-hued petals ? I think in this way. Most 

 early types of flowers have a great many stamens 

 apiece, and these stamens are so extremely nu- 

 merous that one or two of them might readily be 

 spared for any other purpose the plant found use- 

 ful. Gradually, as botanists imagine, an outer 

 row of these stamens got flattened out into a form 

 like foliage leaves, only without any ribs or veins 

 to speak of, and developed bright colours to at- 

 tract the insects. Such a flattened and gaily- 

 decked stamen, with no pollen-bearing bag, is 

 what we call a petal. It is usually expanded, 

 thin, and spongy, and it is admirably adapted for 

 the display of bright colours. 



We have still certain flowers among us which 

 show us pretty clearly how this change took place. 

 The common white water-lily is one of them. In 

 the centre of the blossom, in that beautiful plant, 

 we find a large pistil and numerous stamens of 

 the ordinary sort, wdth round stalks or filaments, 

 and yellow pollen-bags hanging out at their ends. 

 Then, as we move forward, we find the filaments 

 or stalks growing flatter and broader, and the 

 pollen-bags gradually less and less perfect. Next 

 we come to a few very flat and broad stamens, 

 looking just like petals, but with two empty pol- 

 len-bags, or sometimes only one, stuck awk- 

 wardly on their edges. Last of all we arrive at 

 true petals without a trace in any way of pollen- 

 bags. I believe the water-lily preserves for us 

 still some memory of the plan by which petals 

 were first invented. Such relics of old conditions 

 are common both in plants and animals; they 

 help us greatly to reconstruct the history of the 

 path by which the various kinds have reached 

 their present perfection. 



