132 VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY. 



by their position, compose all the parts of flowers. A 

 flower, then, is a kind of rosette, or terminal bud, the 

 leaves of which are verticillate, and take a less degree of 

 nutritive development than ordinarily, but acquire, in 

 return, new forms and functions. When the force of 

 vegetation is very great, a larger number of leaves take 

 a foliaceous state, and the branches bear fewer flowers ; 

 when the vegetative force is diminished, the upper leaves 

 have a greater tendency to be transformed into floral 

 parts : this is a law to be observed, practically, by 

 gardeners. 



The extreme ease with which, by this theory, we can 

 explain all the anomalies and monstrosities of flowers, i 

 a sure pledge of its truth. Astronomers only regarded 

 their science as well proved, when they were able to 

 explain by its means the apparent aberrations of the 

 stars. 



We may say, in a very widely extended sense, that 

 there only exists three organs in plants — the root, the 

 stem, and the leaves, and that the different modifications, 

 which the summits of the stems and the appendicular or 

 foliaceous organs present, constitute all the apparatus of 

 the flowers and fruit. 



But because the floral parts may be considered as 

 modified leaves, we can by no means conclude that, in 

 changing form, they cannot take new functions ; and it 

 seems to me, we ought not to attach to this idea any 

 argument against the theory of the sexes. Every analogy 

 tends to prove, on the contrary, that the modified organs 

 often serve very different purposes from their primitive 

 ones, and in particular the sexual fecundation appears 

 to me to be demonstrated in plants, almost to the same 

 degree as in animals. 



