8o MORPHOLOGY 



padma the sepals gradually pass into petals, and 

 petals into staniens, without that sudden break be- 

 tween them which is ordinarily met with in flowers. 

 In cultivated flowers, such as Rose, Poppy, Pink, 

 and gandha-raj, the petals are doubled or increased 

 in number by the retrograde degeneration or con- 

 version of stamens into petals; in fact, the petals 

 increase in number at the expense of the stamens. 

 In Wild Rose, Pink, and gandha-raj there are only 

 five petals, and in Wild Poppy only four petals, 

 whereas in garden specimens their number is very 

 many. Among wild flowers, also, a sort of doubling 

 is occasionally m.et with, as in sarba-jaya or Indian 

 Shot {Canna indicci) (see fig. 263), halood or Tur- 

 meric, ada or Ginger, and dulal-champa {Hedychium 

 coronarium) (see fig. 262), where one or more petal- 

 like structures intervene between the true petals and 

 the stamen; these petal-like structures are meta- 

 morphosed stamens and are hence styled staminodia. 

 Again, in sarba-jaya the single stamen is also par- 

 tially petaloid or petal-like. All these facts go to 

 establish the foliar nature of the stamen. The foliar 

 nature of the carpels is established by instances of 

 cultivated flowers like those of Rose, in which the 

 centre of the flower is often seen to be occupied by 

 a number of green leaves where the carpels should be; 

 in fact, the carpels are metamorphosed into and re- 

 placed by green leaves. In doubled gandha-raj, the 

 style and stigma are often petaloid. The style is also 

 petaloid in Canna. Flowers oi Brassica (as sharisha, 

 phul-kapi), Sterculia (as jangli-badam), Triumfetta, 

 &c., have their pistils occasionally replaced by leafy 

 organs. In anaras or Pine-apple the flowering axis, 

 after giving rise to a close-set spike, which matures 

 into an aggregate fruit (sorosis), occasionally con- 



