FORMATION OF' THE FLOWER. 19 



often is, in this manner, multiplied indefinitely, by the dissevered parts of itself, 

 as well as by the seed. 



23. But, remaining connected with the parent stock, axillary 

 buds, a part or all of them, according to circumstances, are de- 

 veloped into branches, each of which may again generate buds 

 and branchlets in the axils of its own leaves, in the same 

 manner. 



a. Thus, by the repetition of this simple process, the vegetable fabric is reared 

 from the earth, a compound being, formed of as many united individuals as there 

 are buds, and as many buds as there are branches and leaves, ever advancing in 

 the direction of the growing points, by the deposition of matter derived from the 

 cellular tissue, clothing itself with leaves as it advances, and enlarging the diam 

 cter of its axis by the deposition of matter elaborated by, and descending from, 

 the leaves already developed, until it reaches the limits of the existence assigned 

 it by its Creator. 



b. But the plant, reared by this process alone, would consist only of those parts 

 requisite to its own individual existence, without reference to the continuance of 

 its species beyond its own dissolution. It would be simply an axis, expanded 

 into branches and leaves. But the Divine command, which first caused the tribes 

 of vegetation, in their diversified beauty, to spring from the earth, required that 

 each plant should have its ' seed within itself,' for the perpetuation of its kind. 



24. At certain periods of its vegetation, therefore, a change is 

 observed to occur in the plant, in regard to the development of 

 some of its buds. From the diminished or altered supply of 

 sap, received from the vessels below, the growing point ceases 

 to lengthen in the direction of the axis, but expands its leaves 

 in crowded and concentric whorls ; each successive whorl, pro- 

 ceeding from the outer to the inner, undergoing a gradual trans- 

 formation from the original type (a leaf), according to the 

 purpose it is destined to fulfil in the production of the seed. 

 Thus, instead of a leafy branch, the ordinary progeny of a bud, 

 a flower is the result. 



25. A flower may, therefore, be considered as a transformed 

 branch, having the leaves crowded together by the non-devel- 

 opment of the axis, and moulded into more delicate structures, 

 and tinged with more brilliant hues, not only to adorn and 

 beautify the face of nature, but to fulfil the important office of 

 reproduction. 



a. In the common peony, for example, as the leaves approach the summit of 

 the stem, they gradually lose their characteristic divisions, and, at length, just 



