78 MORPHOLOGY OF THE FLOWER. 



240 239 238 237 236 235 234 233 232 281 



229, Papaver (poppy) ; s, stamens ; p, stigmas. 230, Sepal. 231, Petal all very different. 232 

 Petals of the water-lily (Nyrnpksea) gradually passing into (240) stamens. 



are exactly in point. The leaves of the paeony, large and much divided below, 

 become smaller and more simple above, gradually passing into bracts and thence 

 into sepals. In Calycanthus the sepal passes into the petal by gradations so gentle 

 that we can not mark the limit between them. In the lilies these two organs are 

 almost identical. In the water-lily, where the sepal, petal, and stamen are all thus 

 graduated, the transition from petal to stamen is particularly instructive. These 

 two forms meet half way by a perfect series, of gradations, when a narrowed petal 

 is capped slightly with the semblance of an anther. And finally, cases of a close 

 resemblance between stamen and pistil, so unlike in the poppy, are not wanting, as 

 in the tulip-tree. 



379. FLOWERS ALWAYS REGULAR IN THE EARLY BUD. An early examination of 

 flower-buds often exhibits the several kinds of organs much less diverse than they 

 subsequently become. See the early bud of columbine. Those flowers which are 

 243 242 241 



241, Ranunculus acrls ; a single flower. 242, R. acris, /3. plena, a double llower. 243, Epacris 

 impressa; the flowers changing to leafy branches (Lindley). 



