MKTAMOR1HOS1S OF PLANTS. 



155 



Theoretical plant of Professor Lindley, generated by a leaf 

 whirling F.pirally ; a a, the leaves as yet alternate ; 6, five leaves 

 in a whirl degenerated into a flower- cup; c, five leaves degene- 

 rated into a blossom : d, five leaves degenerated into stamens ; <?, 

 base of the footstalks of five leaves degenerated into a disc ; /, 

 five leaves degenerated into pistils. 



In the more recondite parts of the theory, we are 

 told that a stamen is really a leaf, the filament being 

 the leaf-stalk, and the anther the leaf-plate, while the 

 furrow between its two lobes is the mid-rib, and the 

 pollen the leaf-pulp ; that a disc is really the base of 



