232 



THE FLOWER. 



perfectly, but the ensuing ones successfully, the appearance and 

 the ordinary office of leaves ( 146). 



426. The analogies of vegetation would therefore suggest, that, 

 in flowering, the leaves, no longer developing as mere foliage, are 

 now wrought into new forms, to subserve peculiar purposes. In 

 the chapter on Inflorescence, we have already shown that the ar- 

 rangement and situation of flowers upon the stem conform to this 

 idea. In this respect, flowers are absolutely like branches. The 

 aspect of the floral envelopes favors the same view. We discern 

 the typical element, the leaf, in the calyx; and again, more deli- 

 cate and refined, in the petals. In numberless instances, we ob- 

 serve a regular transition from ordinary leaves into sepals, and 

 from sepals into petals. And, while the petals are occasionally 



green and herbaceous, the undoubted foliage sometimes assumes a 



FIG. 265. Open flower, with a flower-bud and, leaf of the White Water-Lily (Nymphaea 

 odorata) ; the inner petals passing into stamens. 266. A flower with all the parts around the 

 pistil cut away except one of the petaloid stamens, one intermediate, and one proper stamen. 

 267. An inner petal, with the imperfect rudiments of an anther at the tip. 268. Transverse 

 section of an ovary. 



