82 



TRANSFORMATIONS OF FLOWERS. 



wholly or in part, yet the sexes are always present. Conse- 

 quently the latter are all that is essential to a flower, and no 

 part can be a flower from which they are absent. 



Notwithstanding the difference inform and office of the parts 

 of a flower, they have evidently a strong tendency in cultivated 

 plants to change into or assume the appearance of each other. 

 In the Poppy, the Garden Anemone, and many others, the 



Fig. XV. — Transformation of origans in an Amaryllis. 



stamens change into petals ; in the Anemone, the Ranunculus, 

 &c., the pistil changes into petals ; in the Primrose, Cowslip, 

 &c., the calyx changes into petals ; in the Houseleek, the 

 stamens become pistils ; and so on. Hence the origin of 

 double flowers. In a double Barbadoes Lily, described by me 

 in the Transactions of the Horticuliwal Society, in which the 

 parts were very much confused, the young seeds were borne by 

 the edges of the stamen-like petals (Fig. XV.). 



In their ordinary state the parts of a flower are extremely 

 unlike leaves, -and each has its allotted office, which is not the 



