388 THE UNIVERSE. 



''When I am not asked Avliat time is I know it very 

 well; I do not know it when I am asked." These Avords 

 of St. Angustin, which J. J. Rousseau repeats, are per- 

 fectly applicable to the flower, the essence of which every 

 one thinks he knows, and which nevertheless no one ever 

 previously succeeded in describing well. This honour was 

 reserved for the philosopher of Geneva, who admits hav- 

 ing found so much happiness in the study of botany.^ 



Difficult as it may be to define the flower with preci- 

 sion, it is not less so to unravel its mysterious genealogy. 



While prying deeply into its primordial essence, Goethe, 

 triply illustrious as a naturalist, poet, and philosopher, 

 arrived at a discovery which was quite unexpected. He 

 has scientifically proved, that however sumptuous the 

 beauty of a flower may be, each part of it is nevertheless 

 only a result of the metamorphosis of a humble leaf. We 

 are therefore right in saying that we are stripping the 

 roses of their leaves when tearing off their coloured lobes, 

 for each of these is in fact only a transformed leaf 



When the floral apparatus is com2:)lete it is formed 

 of four rosettes, or verticilli, of depressed concentrated 

 leaves. 



These leaves are transformed into two kinds of organs. 

 Some become the perianth, the most brilliant part of the 

 flower, a true organ of protection, forming soft swathes 

 for the delicate apparatus which it incloses, and, like a 

 glowing mirror, reflecting heat and light upon them. The 

 others, still further changed, are raised to the dignity of a 

 reproductive apparatus. 



' Tlie only author who has described a flower well is liousseau, who at one 

 period of his life occupied himself with botany, and even wrote several volumes 

 on this science. "It is," he says, "a local and fleeting part in which, or by which, 

 the fecundation of the plant is effected." — J. J. Rousseau, Dictionnaire de Botan- 

 iqiie, art. "Fleur." 



