32 PACHYSANDRA PROCUMBENS. — AMERICAN THICK-STAMEN. 



twelvemonth. It makes two buds a year, however, and by that 

 means an immense increase occurs in the course of time. 



The scales on the young stem-growth make a pretty feature. 

 It is seldom that we see so many in so short a space. The 

 student, of course, knows that they are but leaves modified. 

 The plant needs no leaves underground, but Nature, in her 

 abundant provision, prepares innumerable elementary parts be- 

 yond what ever come to perfection, so that she is always ready 

 to act when the time comes. Sometimes these unformed 

 leaves perform the office of bud-scales, and may protect the 

 flower, but the number is so great that they can never be all 

 needed. The transition from the scale or imperfect condition 

 to the perfect leaf, as we see by the plate, is not gradual, but by 

 one great leap, and this, also, is very common in morphology. 

 The change from one form of structure to another, though each 

 be composed of essentially the same elements, is seldom by 

 gradual approaches. 



The seeds of the American Thick -Stamen do not mature 

 till autumn. The plant is, however, never raised from seed in 

 gardens, but is propagated by dividing the root-stocks. It is 

 not found nearly as often in gardens as from its many points of 

 interest it deserves to be. 



