190 WILD FLOWER FAMILIES 



scented Water Lily, which has also a pink-flow- 

 ered variety along the Atlantic Coast. If the 

 leaves are green on both sides it is the Tuberous 

 White Water Lily. 



The structure of these wonderful blossoms is 

 worth a few moments' study because they show 

 so well the transition from stamens to petals. 

 Botanists have frequently called attention to the 

 modern belief that the floral envelopes the sepals 

 and the petals have been developed through the 

 modification of the stamens. In these little flow- 

 ers we can see all stages of the process. The 

 stamens are arranged in large circles around the 

 centre of the blossom. Those of the inner whorl 

 are normal in form, with perfectly developed fila- 

 ments and anthers, and in the outer whorls many 

 of the filaments are wider and flatter than the nor- 

 mal ones, while many of the anthers are abortive. 

 From this beginning of the transition one can 

 generally find in a single blossom all the stages to 

 the perfect petal : on succeeding stamens the fila- 

 ment becomes wider and wider, the color becomes 

 lighter and lighter, the anthers become smaller 

 and smaller, until we see but the merest rudiment 

 of an anther on one side of the petal. 



Similar studies of petaloid stamens can be. made 

 in the case of many other flowers. The white 

 blossoms of the common Syringa bush furnish 

 excellent examples of it, and in very many of 



