58 



VITAL ACTIONS. 



SO has it in the Nasturtium, in Sieversia montana, and 



many other instances. A 

 partial alteration into leaves 

 is of very frequent occur- 

 rence in the parts of a flower. 

 In the Eose, the sepals and 

 pistil are frequently changed 

 into leaves ; in the Double 

 Cherry, the pistil is almost 

 always to be found in the 

 form of a leaf; and books 

 on structural botany abound 

 in the records of similar 

 cases. It sometimes happens that buds are not only 

 formed, but developed, at the axils of the parts of a 

 flower, as in a Celastrus scandens observed by Kunth, 

 {fig. 11.) In the Pear, it is 

 not uncommon to find two or 

 three small pears growing out 

 of an older one {fig. 12), each 

 of which pears may be traced 

 to the axil of some one of the 

 parts of the flower ; and rose- 

 buds are frequently seen growing out of Eoses. A 

 very striking and uncommon case of this sort was 

 observed by the late Mr. Knight in the Potato {fig. 

 13), whose flowers produced young potatoes in the 

 axils of the sepals and petals.* Occasionally, the 

 centre of a flower lengthens and bears its parts upon 

 its sides, as in the Pear and Apple, whose fruH is 



* Proceedings of the Horticultural Society, vol. . p. 89. fig. 2. 



