VARIOUS MARBIAGE CUSTOMS, 95 



useful. Gradually, as botanists imagine, an 

 outer row of these stamens got flattened out 

 into a form like foliage leaves, only without any 

 ribs or veins to speak of, and developed bright 

 colours to attract the insects. Such a flattened 

 and gaily-decked stamen, with no pollen-bearing 

 bag, is what we call a petal. It is usually ex- 

 panded, thin, and spongy, and it is admirably 

 adapted for the display of bright colours. 



We have still certain flowers among us which 

 show us pretty clearly how this change took place. 

 The common white water-lily is one of them. 

 In the centre of the blossom, in that beautiful 

 plant, we find a large pistil and numerous sta- 

 mens of the ordinary sort, with round stalks or 

 filaments, and yellow pollen-bags hanging out at 

 their ends. Then, as we move outward, we 

 find the filaments or stalks growing flatter and 

 broader, and the pollen-bags gradually less and 

 less perfect. Next we come to a few very flat and 

 broad stamens, looking just like petals, but with 

 two empty pollen-bags, or sometimes only one, 

 stuck awkwardly on their edges. Last of all we 

 arrive at true petals without a trace in any 

 way of pollen-bags. I believe the water-lily 

 preserves for us still some memory of the plan 

 by which petals were first invented. Such relics 

 of old conditions are common both in plants and 

 animals ; they help us greatly to reconstruct the 

 history of the path by which the various kinds 

 have reached their present perfection. 



Even in our own day, in plants where stamens 

 are numerous, they often tend to develop into 

 petals, especially when growing in very rich 



