62 PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES ON 



all, that monsters are undoubtedly the basis and genesis of many 

 variations in nature, and therefore ought to be made use of for the 

 creation of similar variations in art. A symmetrical monster may- 

 be far more fascinating than an unsymmetrical orthodoxy. 



There is nothing more insensate, I think, and wasteful than 

 the eradication and destruction of every so-called monstrous form, 

 which does not exactly come up to our ideal of what might be 

 called " tailored " flowers. Monsters are evidently inheritable, 

 and therefore reproducible ; they would teach us a great deal about 

 the methods of creation and would give us additional, and often 

 acceptable, and interesting variations. 



Then there are the Hyosciamus niger, the Mespilus Grermanica, 

 and all the Pomaceae, the composition of the fruit of which might 

 be considered as a calyx whorl adherent to, or fused to the ovary 

 whorl. 



I know that there is another way of interpreting the fruit of 

 the Pomaceas, viz., that it consists of a carpel whorl engulfed in 

 the bark or calyx tube, while the divisions of the calyx surround 

 the orifice of this fig-like tube. 



The rose-hip is a fig-like receptacle, containing akenes, or 

 female florets only, while the stamens, which represent the male 

 florets, are arranged round the orifice, as in some figs. The bracts 

 which close the orifice of the fig are here represented by the rose 

 sepals and petals. 



However we may interpret the fruit of the roses and apples, 

 there is an evident fusion of the tube or base of the sepals with 

 the carpels. 



Then what is fusion of parts ? It is the adhesion or agglutina- 

 tion, or union of contiguous parts. As two ovules can fuse into 

 one body, so two contiguous closely packed parts may fuse 

 into one, more especially if their contiguous surfaces are not hairy. 

 In grafting and budding the scion fuses so completely with the 

 stock as to become often indistinguishable from it. 



There is evidence that this phenomenon of fusion has played 

 a large part in the modification of plants. Take, for instance, the 

 crown of the narcissus, it is evidently the fusion of an inner whorl 

 of petals into a cup or tube. I believe these are not considered 

 worthy of being called petals, but simply appendages, having an 

 origin homologous to the fringes in the throat of the Hippeastrum. 

 Kevertheless, when the narcissus flower doubles, the crown often 



