Reproduction of Angiotperms : The Flow. 



Apart from somatic organisation of the leaf, stem, and root, 

 constituting the working mechanism of the life of the fWjjft/, it is 

 consider the mechanism for maintaining the existence of the raft, as tfc 

 wear out, owing to the imperfection of metabolic mechanism, tad die. 



also includes: 



The possibility of the improvement of the race, at progrtttion in hm*. 

 Dispersal to new stations, as progression in tpatt. 



T%| -I a ! {lllai ^feJMWbJMtA M/ - * J_ |U^ i- .-.- -J Hf^Aim^tm 



uisperaai implies enormous rrajtagt, m me cut nee 01 Bnon new 



same race, or dSflerent forms of organism, beyond the maintenance of its own 

 existence and growth, the entire working life of the organism may he spent in com 

 penttrtng wastage. If this is not done the race diet out Races exist on the Law 

 of the Minimum'; so that output of reproductive units of different categories may 

 be taken as the price of existence (Wasiagt-cotfcitnf). Hence reproduction "rHrfff 

 the production of a multitude of individuals as a secondary feature ; 

 plication can be effected quite as efficiently by ' Kyrftti* Profits** 

 in such wastage is the criterion of higher organism; the mechanism of 

 of the Flowering-plant being so far the highest expression of successful pit 



Angiocpenxis i In r lowering Plants of higher order the vnole of 

 due tive processes are included within the mechanism of special shoots dii 

 as Flowers, attaining their limit in the production of seeds, from which individuals of 

 type similar to the parent organism can be produced, as a fact of general experience. 

 The organization of the flower includes a series of extremely complex rirunomtnt, 

 only to be understood by tracing its evolutionary progression from earlier stages of 

 plant-life. The analysis of the mechanism of flowers is the most important pan of 

 Botany from the standpoint of Reproduction, rather than from that of Systematy ; the 

 latter follows as a consequence. 



Ancient History : Vague ideas of sex ' in plants go back to 

 Linnaeus (XVIII century) regarded a flower 



(cf. Date-Palm). Linnaeus (XVIII century) regarded a flower as a 



ism ; stamens male, and 'pistils ' female ; hence such terms as ovary, ktrmapkrodiU, etc., 



analogous with sex in animals are microscopic in dimensions, and wholly enclosed in 

 the ti.s.sucs ; the reproductive mechanism is more complex, and in many respects more 

 advanced, than in any animal 



General Idea, of a Flower. A shoot-system, with characters different from 

 the normal photosynthetic shoot, set apart to perform the whole of the reproductive 

 functions, sexual and asexual, culminating in the liberation of seeds, and imbdmg 

 the essential mechanism of : 



(i) Pollination, (2) Fertilisation, (3) Dispersal, 



as also the developmental history of: 



(i) Spores, (a) Gametes, (3) The Embryo, respectively, 



and the mode of nutrition of these respective units. 



Definition : ' An axis bearing sporophylls' ; with emendations ; 



(1) A special axis, i. e. a branch (= sirobihis). 



(2) Sporophylls, as spore-producing leaf-members, bearing spores of s kinds. 

 Micro- and Mega-, as the ' hermaphrodite ' condition. 



(3) With accessory protective members (perianth), and arrangement in definite 



(= antbostrobUus). 



(4) The parts co-ordinated by growth- fcctors, and ame-factors, to constitute 

 a floral mechanism; the first object of which it to secure ittti fidhmaf**, 

 i. e. pollinated from another individual of the tame species. 



Part* of a typical Flowor, as an average modern limiting form 



(1) A bud-formation, producing leaf-tike members; without much intercalary 

 extension in the axis, conveniently termed the Reptatli. 



(2) Either sessile, or extended on an internodal growth at 



(3) Outer floral leaves, accessory and protective, as Perianth. 



(4) The essential organs of SporophyUs, as : 



3 



