142 Flowers and their Pediorees. 



on one divergent branch was the alisma, or some- 

 thing very like it ; the earliest petal-bearing form 

 they produced on the other divergent branch was the 

 buttercup, or something very like it. Hence, when- 

 ever we have to deal with the pedigree of either great 

 line, the fixed historical point from which we must 

 needs set out must always be the typical alismas or 



a, ovaries ; 3, stamens, inner whorl ; c, stamens, outer whorl ; d, petals 

 e, calyx -pieces. 



Fig. 32. — Diagram of primitive monocotyledonous flower. 



the typical buttercups. The accompanying diagram 

 will show at once the relation of parts in the simplest 

 trinary flowers, and will serve for comparison at a 

 later stage of our argument with the arrangement of 

 their degraded descendants, the wheats and grasses. 



Our own smaller alisma has a number of ovaries 

 loosely scattered about in its centre, as in the butter- 



