XIX 



normal or accustomed form, that, by an observer not familiar with 

 the modification in question, it would possibly be mistaken for a 

 different species. The flowering stems shoot up, terminating in 

 the spiked or panicled form characteristic of their kind ; but, as 

 the glumes open, the deficiency of the floral structure quickly 

 becomes apparent. The paleae and stamens do not develope, though 

 their rudiments may be present and, often, easily traceable ; indeed 

 those of the former are generally so, but so different in character 

 from the corresponding organs in a seed-bearing plant as scarcely 

 to be recognized. Prom the place of the pistil extends a little 

 green leaf, from the sheathing base of which a second soon comes 

 forth, like a Grass growing from its seed, excepting that the little 

 plant thus produced is stronger and more rigid than those of seed- 

 ling growth. Regarded in a physiological point of view, there is 

 not anything to excite our surprise at a result so contrary to that 

 of the flowering process, by which the species is multiplied under 

 ordinary circumstances. Every flower is, strictly -speaking, merely 

 a condensed branch or stem, and each of its parts or organs a mo- 

 dified leaf, liable to develope as a common leaf when unrestricted 

 by the peculiar conditions which compel it to assume a different 

 form. Garden cultivation affords numerous instances of this 

 liability to floral metamorphosis, every double flower decorating 

 our parterres being an illustration of the passage of one set of 

 organs into another. Our double roses are frequently disfigured, 

 in the estimation of the florist, by presenting a green leafy centre, 

 the result of an imperfect modification of the leaves which in the 

 natural state of the flower would compose its pistils. I have suc- 

 ceeded in raising a rose-bush by planting such a production, 

 which was truly only planting the terminal bud of a branch : the 

 viviparous multiplication of a Grass is a parallel process in organic 

 development. 



It is, then, only the capability of our Grass to adapt itself to cir- 

 cumstances that is deserving of remark, — the wonderful plasticity of 



c2 



