42 FLORAL LEAVES [CH. 



bright colours or turning white as they so often do, no 

 one would overlook the reality of these resemblances. 



But there are certain liowers which do retain the 

 green colour in some or all of their parts ; and many 

 others, the leaf-like parts of which are normally not green, 

 occasionally revert to the foliar type, as if practising an 

 old habit which some change in conditions has compelled 

 them to resume. 



For instance, the two outermost parts of a Poppy- 

 bud are green, and those of a Mallow or a Strawberry are 

 still more leaf-like, both in form and colour. Again, the 

 innermost parts of the white double-flowering Cherry are 

 obviously of the nature of green leaves, and cases occur 

 where any, or even all, of the parts of the bud are trans- 

 formed into leaves, as shown in monstrous Pears, Roses, 

 and other flowers. Instances are even cited where the 

 forming flower-bud produces flowers in the axils of the 

 parts. 



Nevertheless, it is clear that an opened flower of 

 most kinds of familiar plants does not suggest the above 

 resemblances. Taking a common field Buttercup, for 

 example, the student finds a few greenish organs outside, 

 called sepals, which show a slight venation and other re- 

 semblances to leaves, and these are followed by the larger 

 bright yellow petals which he may not think essentially 

 like leaves in anything but shape, until he sees they also 

 have a delicate network of venation running through the 

 tender tissues. Next come a number of filamentous 

 organs, each with a club-shaped upper end, and these 

 stamens by no means suggest leaves to the uninitiated : 

 nevertheless each has a vascular-bundle running up its 

 centre, like a midrib up a narrow leaf, and each is inserted 

 on the axis as a leaf would be, and in its very young 

 stages is indistinguishable from a young leaf Finally, in 



