LESSON 14.] AKRAXGEMENT OF LEAVES IN THE BUD. 97 



scales of bulbs (Fig. 73-75), in the spines of the Barberry and the 

 tendrils of the Pea, in the fleshy rosetites of the Houseleek, the 

 strange fly-trap of Dionasa (Fig. 81), and the curious pitcher of Sar- 

 racenia (Fig. 79). < 



252. Now the student who understands these varied forms or 

 metamorphoses of the stem and leaf, and knows how to detect the 

 real nature of any part of the plant under any of its disguises, 

 may readily trace the leaf into the blossom also, and perceive that, 

 as to their morphology, 



253. Flowers are altered Branches, and their parts, therefore, altered 

 leaves. That is, certain buds, which might have growii and length- 

 ened into a leafy branch, do, under other circumstances and to ac- 

 complish other purposes, develop into blossoms. In these the axis 

 remains short, nearly as it is in the bud ; the leaves therefore remain 

 close together in sets or circles ; the outer ones, those of the calyx, 

 generally partake more or less of the character of foliage ; the next 

 set are more delicate, and form the corolla, while the rest, the sta- 

 mens and pistils, appear under forms very different from those of 

 ordinary leaves, and are concerned in the production of seed. This 

 is the way the scientific botanist views a flower ; and this view gives 

 to Botany an interest which one who merely notices the shape and 

 counts the parts of blossoms, without understanding' their plan, has 

 no conception of. 



254. That flowers answer to branches may be shown first from 

 their position. As explained in the Lesson on Inflorescence, flowers 

 arise from the same places as branches, and from no other ; flower- 

 buds, like leaf-buds, appear either on the summit of a stem, that is, 

 as a terminal bud, or in the axil of a leaf, as an axillary bud (196). 

 And at an early stage it is often impossible to foretell whether the 

 bud is to give rise to a blossom or to a branch. 



255. That the sepals and petals are of the nature of leaves is 

 evident from their appearance ; persons who are not botanists com- 

 monly call them the leaves of the flower. The calyx is most gen- 

 erally green in color, and foliaceous (leaf-like) in texture. And 

 though the corolla is rarely green, yet neither are proper leaves 

 always green. In our wild Painted-Cup, and in some scarlet Sages, 

 common in gardens, the leaves just under the flowers are of the 

 brightest red or scarlet, often much brighter-colored than the corolla 

 itself. And sometimes (as in many Cactuses, and in Carolina All- 

 spice) there is such a regular gradation from the last leaves of the 



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