26 FioiK^crs and their Pedigrees. 



broadened and flattened into ornamental rays. Even 

 amongst wild flowers, the white water-lily shows us 

 every gradation between fertile pollen-bearing true 

 stamens and barren broad-bladed petals. To put it 

 shortly and dogmatically, petals are in every case 

 merely specialised stamens, which have given up 

 their original function of forming pollen, in order to 

 adopt the function of attracting insects. 



Fig. 8. — Transition from stamen to petal in White Water-lily. 



The five-rowed ancestors of the daisy found a 

 decided advantage in thus setting apart one outer 

 row of stamens as coloured advertisements to lure the 

 insects to the honey, while they left the inner rows to 

 do all the real work of pollen-making. They verj' 

 rapidly spread over the world, and assumed ver}-^ 

 various forms in various places. But wherever they 

 went, they always preserved more or less trace of 

 their quinary arrangement ; and to this day, if you 

 pick almost any flower belonging to the same great 



