THB PHiENOGAMIA — HOW DEVELOPED, 



23 



may, in turn, generate buds and hranchlets in the axils of their own 

 leaves in like manner. 



108. By the coNHNnii repetition op this simplb process the vegetable 

 fabric arises, ever advancing in the direction of all its growing points, clothing itself 

 with leaves as it advances, and enlarging the diameter of its axis, until it reaches 

 the limit of existence assigned by its Creator. 



109. The organs of NnTRiTiou. Reared by this process alone the plant con- 

 sists of such organs only as were designed for its own individual nourishment — ^roots 

 to absorb its food, stem and branches to transmit it, and leaves to digest it. These 

 are called organs of nutrition. But the divine command which caused the tribes 

 of vegetation in their diversified beauty to spring from the earth, required that 

 each plant should have its "seed within itself" for the perpetuation of its kind. 



110. How the plowbr originates. In the third stage of vegeta- 

 tion, therefore, a change occurs in the development of some of the buds. 

 The growing point ceases to advance as hitherto, expands its leaves in 

 crowded whorls,' each successive whorl undergoing a gradual transfor- 

 mation departing from the original type, — the leaf. Thus, instead of a 

 leafy branch, the ordinary progeny of the bud, 9, flower is the result. 



111. Nature of the flower. A flower may be considered as a 

 transformed branch, having the leaves crowded together by the non- 

 development of the axis, moulded into more delicate structures, and 

 tinged with more brilliant hues, not only to adorn the face of nature, 

 but to fulfill the important office of reproduction. 



M, P«eony, with some of Its petals remOTed to show the stamens and pistils. U to 22, the 

 organs, gradnated from the leaf to the pistil. 



