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324 THE PARTS OF A SEED-PLANT 
a root, and so leading an independent existence. On this view 
each segment would correspond to an individual animal and 
its leaf-part and stem-part would be likened to the members 
of the animal body, such as the trunk and the limbs. - With- 
out accepting this extreme view of what constitutes an 
individual plant—a view not in accord with what we have 
learned about the development of the shoot—it may still be 
convenient to regard the bodies of the higher plants as built 
up of segments, much as zoélogists regard the bodies of 
many segmented animals like earth-worms and lobsters as 
consisting of a series of roughly comparable units; and, 
similarly, just as the limb of an animal viewed as one of the 
main divisions of the body or of a segment is called a member, 
so the main divisions of a plant-segment—the stem, the 
leaf, and the root—viewed not as organs but merely as parts 
differing in origin and position, may be conveniently dis- 
tinguished as members of the plant body. 
But the question at once arises, supposing it to be admitted 
that the vegetating plant may be roughly likened to a many- 
storied building, each story being a segment, and the whole 
supported on a root foundation, can we yet find correspond- 
ing units of structure in the flower? If the flower is com- 
posed of segments it is evident that the different members 
must be more or less disguised. As regards the floral envel- 
opes we have already seen that their leaf-like nature is so 
thinly disguised that they are commonly recognized as 
“leaves of the flower.”’ Indeed, we have only to suppose 
the internodes of the stem-parts to have remained as short 
as they were in the bud, while the leaf-parts expanded, to 
see that so far as origin and relative position are concerned, 
the floral envelopes are essentially like a leaf-rosette. But 
the stamens and the pistil present greater difficulties. Still, 
when we come to compare other flowers with those of the 
flax, we shall find much evidence going to show that even 
stamens and pistils correspond in large part to leaves. One 
sort of evidence—not indeed conclusive, but yet significant— 
is the occurrence now and then of monstrous flowers in which 
actual green leaves occupy the place of the stamens and pistil, 
much as if the organs had determined to throw off all dis- 
