2 2 Flowers and their Pcdiorees. 



but it is for our present purpose the one of capital 

 importance. 



The very primitive five-parted common ancestor 

 of the daisy, the rose, the buttercup, and our other 

 quinary flowers, was still an extremely simple and 

 inconspicuous blossom. It had merely green leaves 

 and plain flower-stems, surmounted by a row of five 



a, Carpels or ovaries : h. stamens, inner row ; c, stamens, outer row; 



d, petals ; e, calyx. 



Fig. 7. — Diagram of primitive monocotyledonous flower. 



or ten stamens, inclosing five or ten carpels. Perhaps 

 beneath them there may have been a little row of 

 cup-shaped green bracts, the predecessors of the calyx 

 which supports all modern flowers ; but of this we 

 cannot be at all sure. At any rate, it had no bright- 

 coloured petals. The origin of these petals is due to 

 the eyes and selective tastes of insects ; and we must 



