204 THE EVOLUT10XIST AT LARGE. 



along a line marked out from the very first. 

 In the plastic bud condition it is very < 

 for parts usually separate so to grow out in 

 union with one another. I do not mean 

 that separate pieces actually grow together, 

 but that pieces which usually grow distinct 

 sometimes grow united from the very first. 

 Now, four or five petals, radially arranged, 

 in themselves produce that kind of symmetry 

 which man, with his intellectual love for 

 order and definite patterns, always finds 

 beautiful. But the symmetry in the flower 

 simply results from the fact that a single 

 whorl of leaves has grown into this particular 

 shape, while the outer and inner whorls have 

 grown into other shapes ; and every such 

 whorl always and necessarily presents us with 

 an example of the kind of symmetry which 

 we so much admire. Again, when the petals 

 forming a whorl coalesce, they must, of course, 

 produce a more or less regular circle. If 

 the points of the petals remain as projec- 

 tions, then we get a circle with vantl\ 



