92 INFERENCES. 



all assume, under particular circumstances, the same appear- 

 ance and office. Hence it is inferred that they are really 

 nothing more than leaves in a modified state; and, conse- 

 'quently, that a flower is a very short branch, and a flower-bud 

 analogous in many respects to a leaf-bud. A leaf-bud is a 

 collection of leaf-scales of the same or similar form, arranged 

 round a central very short branch, having a growing point. A 

 flower-bud is a collection of leaf-scales of different forms, 

 arranged round a central very short branch, not having a 

 growing point under ordinary circumstances. In this latter 

 respect it resembles those buds of the Larch which form leaves 

 in starry clusters, without extending into a branch. Many 

 points in horticulture could not be explained untU the exis- 

 tence of this analogy was made out.* 



What it is that causes a plant to convert some of its buds 

 into flowers, by fashioning the leaves into calyx, corolla, 

 stamens, and pistils, while other buds Become branches clothed 

 with ordinary leaves, is beyond the reach of explanation. 

 There are, however, certain facts connected with it which 

 require notice. It is clear that plants begin to fructify at 

 some determinate period, varying in different species. In 

 annuals this occurs in a few weeks or months after germination; 



* Tliis doctrine has been taught at different times, by different independent 

 observers. Among other persons, I find that Mr. Knight had come to the same con- 

 clusion, at a time when the views of Wolffius and Goethe were quite unknown in 

 England. He says: "The buds of fruit-trees which produce blossoms, and those 

 which afford leaves only, in the spring, do not at all differ from each other, in their 

 first stage of organization, as buds. Each contain the rudiment of leaves orly, which 

 are subsequently transformed into the component parts of the blossom and in some 

 species of the fruit also. I have repeatedly ascertained that a blossom of a Pear or 

 Apple-tree contains parts which preimusly existed as the rudiments of five leaves, 

 the points of which subsequently forff the five Segments of the calyx ; and I have 

 often succeeded in obtaining every gradation of monstrosity of form, from five congre- 

 gated leaves (that is, five leaves united circularly upon an imperfect fruit-stalk), to 

 the perfect blossom of the Pear-tree. The calyx of the Rose, in some varieties . pre- 

 sents nearly the perfect leaves of the plant, and the large and long leaves of the 

 Medlar appear to account for the length of the segments, in the empalement of its 

 blossom. The calyx of the blossom of the Plum and Peach-tree is formed precisely as 

 in the preceding cases, except that the leaves which are transmuted into the calyx 

 separate at the base of the fruit, and become deciduous, instead of passing through 

 and remaining a component part of it." {Tramactions of the RorticuUm-al Soeietii, 

 vol u. p. 364. May 6, 1817.) 



