SEX AND FERTILIZATION. Ill 



elementary or advanced botanical. treatise, be able to 

 ijistinguish the sexual ^and other organs and parts of 

 flowers, and when a person has acquired this knowledge 

 t|irough. actual observation and study, that which may 

 have been previously obscure will, in a great measure, 

 become plain and easily understood. Partly or wholly 

 smothered organs will be relieved by removing, entire 

 or in part, others that have overgrown and shaded them, 

 as is frequently practised in removing the abnormal and 

 highly-dejeloped petals of double flowers, as in the double 

 Dahlias, Chrysanthemums, Asters, and other plants of 

 the Composite Family. 



lUvthe doubling of such flowers as Fuchsias, Carna- 

 tions, Camellias, Koses, and all members of the great 

 Eose Family ; Apple, Peach, Plum, Cherry, Almond 

 and Quince, as well as those of the Mallow Family; 

 Abutilon, Hollyhock, etc., the additional number of 

 petals are mainly transformed stamens, and the metamor- 

 phosis of these organs can be readily traced in their 

 gradual advance from the single to the double form. 

 There are, however, exceptions to this rule, and the 

 multiplication of petals is a distinct process from that in 

 which they proceed from transformed stamens and pistils. 

 Sometimes we find a duplication of the petals in the 

 Hollyhock, Rose of Sharon and Chinese Hibiscus, while 

 the sexual organs retain their normal number and form. 

 In the only double Abutilon at present known (Abutilon 

 Thompsonii pleno), the stamens are all transformed into 

 irregularly shaped petals, with no duplication .of the 

 divisions of the original corolla ; but a plant of Afiutilon, 

 tk Mary Miller, " in my greenhouse, recently produced a 

 flower with a perfectly duplicated corolla, or a semi-double 

 flower, showing that what we call "doubling" may pro- 

 ceed in this genus from both multiplication of the corolla 

 and the transformation of the stamens. 



In some plants, like the Rose, Fuchsias and Abutilon, 



