190 WILD FLOWER FAMILIES 
’ 
scented Water Lily, which has also a pink-flow- 
ered variety along the Atlantic Coast. If the 
leaves are green on both sides it is the Tuberous 
White Water Lily. 
The structure of these wonderful blossoms is 
worth a few moments’ study because they show 
so well the transition from stamens to petals. 
Botanists have frequently called attention to the 
modern belief that the floral envelopes—the sepals 
and the petals—have been developed through the 
modification of the stamens. In these little flow- 
ers we can see all stages of the process. The 
stamens are arranged in large circles around the 
centre of the blossom. Those of the inner whorl 
are normal in form, with perfectly developed fila- 
ments and anthers, and in the outer whorls many 
of the filaments are wider and flatter than the nor- 
mal ones, while many of the anthers are abortive. 
From this beginning of the transition’ one can 
generally find in a single blossom all the stages to 
the perfect petal: on succeeding stamens the fila- 
ment becomes wider and wider, the color becomes 
lighter and lighter, the anthers becomé smaller 
and smaller, until we see but the merest rudiment 
of an anther on one side of the petal. 
Similar studies of petaloid stamens can be made 
in the case of many other flowers. The white 
blossoms of the common Syringa bush furnish 
excellent examples of it, and in very many of 
