76 PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES ON 



united apices of the stems instead of showing distinct points, 

 show only one continuous frilled edge. 



The axilla of the lower leaves (bracts) of the comb are 

 furnished each with a flower. Higher up the flowers are 

 suppressed, and the leaves become dwarfer and dwarfer till along 

 the margin of the comb they are nothing but hairs. This shows 

 us how easy the leaf passes through various atrophied stages into 

 that of a hair, and may be eventually totally suppressed. 



By studying the cockscomb we can see in imagination sea- 

 weeds consisting only of filaments, turning into blades through 

 this process of fusion, and we can see how an important and very 

 prominent organ cau be dwarfed into a mere unimportant remnant 

 such as a hair, after passing through some millions of generations, 

 and after changing its whole character, so as no longer to be 

 recognized as the same species or even genus. 



"We see fusion, as a modifier of forms in the leaves of the Iris, 

 Gladiolus, and similar plants. Iris Sindjarensis has leaves of 

 the ordinary kind, with a blade on each side of the mid-rib, thus 

 giving an upper, and a lower surface. While the leaf of the 

 ordinary Iris, Gladiolus, Ixia, &c., is sword shaped. This form 

 has been probably brought about by the cohesion and fusion of the 

 upper surfaces of the two side blades, just as the two leaves of a 

 book might cohere. By this fusion the mid-rib would become the 

 outer margin of the sword-like leaves, now depauperized, while 

 the inner margin is made up of the agglutinated free margins of 

 the side blades. 



This transformation will be better understood by noting the 

 the difference between the leaj and the spathe of a Catt.leya. In 

 this orchid, the leaf is like that of Iris Sindjarensis, while the 

 spathe is sword-shaped, like the leaf of Iris Germanica, 

 Gladiolus, &c. 



From this we can understand how it is possible for the hollow 

 leaf of the Sarracenia to have been brought about. The leaf may 

 have been duplicated and become fused by its margins, only to a 

 certain extent, leaving the rest tubular. It is conceivable that the 

 tube is only a bladdered mid-rib, but the margin in the middle of 

 the tube is suspicious, and with evidence of the leaf of one Iris 

 chano-ing into that of another, we may be justified in considering 

 the genesis of the Sarracenia leaf, as similar to that of the 

 Gladiolus, &c. 



