28 ANTHOLOGY: THE GENERAL NATURE OF THE FLOWER 



and its structure can be seen to consist of a great number of very short 

 phytomers, each of the crowded nodes bearincf a scale (c) and in its 

 axis (Fig. 9) a peculiarly shaped body (a, b, c, d). These bodies, as we 

 shall soon see, are flowers, and this entire bunch is a flower cluster. 

 That the scales are modified leaves is proved not only by their position, 

 as pre^•iousl^' explained, and to be further explained in our study of the 

 leaf, but by the fact that in exceptional cases the branch will produce 

 them in a form intermediate between that of a scale and of an ordinary 

 leaf (Fig. 13, a). 



Each Flower of the Cluster is a Modified Branch. — Such being the case, 

 anything produced in their axils must, according to the same laws of 

 position, be modified branches. We must therefore regard the flower 

 shown in Fig. 9 in the axil of the leaf, as a modified branch, one of a 

 great many produced upon the parent modified branch shown in Fig. 8. 

 How profound is the modification which has taken place in the latter 

 can be appreciated from a consideration of its reduced size, for it is now 

 approximate!}^ full grown. The great number of phytomers upon it, 

 had they reached the form and extent of development reached by those 

 in Fig. 1, would have produced a branch many feet, or even yards, in 

 length, whereas in their present form they will produce a structure only 

 an inch or two long. As we shall soon see, increased complexity 

 of structure has replaced the greater amount of tissue-growth of 

 the leafy branch, a cluster of flowers having been produced in its 

 stead. 



The Flower Explained and Defined. — Examining now the little modified 

 branch (Fig. 9) taken from the larger branch (Fig. 8, a), we observe 

 that it presents two uniform portions or halves, united into a single 

 body except at the tip, where they are separate. In exceptional cases 

 we find this separation extended downward, perhaps even to the base 

 of the body, and each of the separated portions expanded, formed and 

 veined very much like a small leaf, which, in fact, it is. The little branch, 

 a, b, c, d, is thus to be regarded as bearing two leaves which have been 

 developed in a united condition. Upon dissection (Fig. 10) the body 

 thus formed from these two leaves is found to be hollow at one portion, 

 containing two slight projections upon its inner wall (a), and upon these 

 a number of minute rounded bodies (6), If allowed to develop and 

 mature under the requisite conditions, we should find that these bodies 

 had become seeds. The structure ])roducing them we now see to be a 

 branch, so modified as to produce seeds, and this constitutes our definition 

 of the flower. 



