82 THE PHENOMENON OE 



and on the other to the fruit, which relationship is also 

 particularly confirmed by many abnormal phenomena. 

 In monstrous afi'ections of the flower, namely, the calyx 

 on the one side passes very readily into a leafy structure, 

 and, on the other, often acquires a fruit-like develop- 

 ment, not only normally, but also in abnormal ways,* 

 while in return the fruit may become calicoid, or even 

 strike into leafy structure in antholytic flowers. In the 

 point of view just examined, therefore, the euphyllary 

 formation, calyx, and fruit, form the analogous sections 

 of the three regions. 



The preceding indications may suffice to show that 

 the leaf-formation by no means exhibits merely a simple 

 decrease or increase, but, in all respects, a swaying up 

 and down, a series of vibrations, in the last of which 

 only is the goal actually attained. These vibrations are 

 not of equal magnitude or equal force in all plants ; on 

 the contrary, there occurs, without affecting the general 

 law, a great multiformity in their conditions. Some- 

 times the wave expressed in the vigour of the leaf- 

 formation, rises and shiks slowly and gradually, as we 

 have seen in the vegetative region of FJdox; sometimes 

 it gathers itself up abruptly and suddenly, as in Epimedium 

 and Mayantliemum; sometimes it ascends suddenly and 

 sinks down more gradually, as in Pcsonia; sometimes it 

 ascends contrariwise, gradually, and sinks down again 

 more suddenly, as in Heliconia. The transition from 

 one region of ascent to another is marked sometimes by 

 a slight, sometimes by a strong depression. This differ- 

 ence is especially manifested in the transition into the 

 flower, since on the one hand there is not unfrequently a 

 direct passage from the euphyllary formation into calicine 

 formation, (almost devoid of any retrogression in the 

 leaf-formation, and with total omission of the hypso- 

 phyllary formation especially representing the descending 



* I have observed this iu especial beauty in a malformation of Citrus 

 medica, where the calyx formed as it were an open citron surrounding the 

 inner natural fruit. 



