230 



THE FLOWER. 



a whole blossom into foliaceous parts has been termed chlorosis, from 

 the green color thus assumed. 



431. A somewhat different proof that the blossom is a sort of 

 branch, and its parts leaves, is occasionally furnished by monstrous 

 flowers in the production of a leafy branch from the centre of a flower, 

 or of one flower out of the centre of another (as rose-buds out of 

 roses). Here the receptacle or axis of the flower resumes the 



ordinary vegetative 

 growth, as in Fig. 

 349, 350. In wet 

 and warm springs, 

 some of the flower- 

 buds of the Pear and 

 Apple are occasion- 

 ally forced into vege- 

 tation, so as com- 

 pletely to break up 

 the flower and change 

 it into an ordinary 

 leafy branch. This 



349 ' 



proves that the recep- 

 tacle of a flower is of the nature of the stem. 



432. An analogous kind of monstrosity, viz. 

 the development of buds — either into leafy 

 branches or into blossoms (Fig. 351) — in the 

 axils of petals, or even of stamens or pistils, fur- 

 nishes additional evidence that these bodies are 



leaves j for, whatever 



branch in its axil must represent a leaf. 



433. The irresistible conclusion from 

 all such evidence is, that the flower is 

 one of the forms — the ultimate form — 

 under which branches appear ; that the 

 leaves of the stem, the leaves or petals 

 of the flower, and even the stamens 

 and pistils, are all forms of a common 



of the nature of 

 bears a bud or 



FIG. 349 Retrograde metamorphosis of a flower of the Fraxinella of the gardens, from 

 Ltndley "s Theory of Horticulture ; an internode elongated just above the stamens, and bearing 

 a whorl of green leaves 



FIG. 350 A monstrous pear, prolonged into a leafy branch ; from Ronnet. 



FIG 351. A flower ot False Hitters". cet (Celastrus scandeus), pioduciu^ other flowers in 

 the axils of the p-tals ; from 'I ur; in. 



