64 MORPHOLOGY. 



carpellary leaf from which the germ may appear, and 

 which is more especially observable in the syncarpous 

 ovarium. 



x. Should the edges of each metamorphosed leaf 

 become united with each other, and with the extending 

 substance of the axis in the midst of them, we have a 

 multilocular ovarium ; but should the edges of the in- 

 dividual leaf not be thus connected, but merely united 

 to the edge of the leaf contiguous to them, we have 

 the ovarium unilocular. 



y. In the development of calyx and corolla, two 

 series of formations are seen ; and in the number of the 

 pieces forming a whole of each series of a regular 

 flower, a uniform system is maintained. 



z. Three and Five are the presiding numbers ; three 

 ruling in Monocotyledonous, and five in Dicotyledo- 

 nous plants. 



a a. The calyx and corolla generally remain true to 

 these numbers ; that is, they show but seldom a multi- 

 plication or diminution of them in a single whorl. 



b b. A manifold state in the staminal series is much 

 more common, and the carpellary one, especially in Di- 

 cotyledons, is subject to considerable reductions. 



4. Now it will have been seen that the leaf is re- 

 garded as the typical structure which rules the forma- 

 tion of most other appendages of the axis, and from the 

 perfect development of which type up to its highest 

 stage of metamorphosis, transitional states may be seen. 



5. Not only, however, may these transitional stages 

 of a leaf to the highest point of its ascending metamor- 

 phosis be traced, but likewise very often the passage of 

 them back again, and even the change of the last state 

 of modification back at once into its typical form, with- 

 out passing through any intermediate modification. 



6. To illustrate this we may remark that the brac- 

 tese very often scarcely differ at all from the leaf, being 



