THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
35 
as he had cast his eyes on the glass that possessed the power of 
embellishing whoever looked at it, he forgot his mistress, and only 
thought of admiring himself; Love, fearing the consequence of 
so foolish an error, broke the glass, and changed the remains into 
this pretty plant that has retained the name of Venus's looking- 
glass." But why Venus, that vain immortal, should raise so 
insignificant a memorial to her beloved mirror, passeth the under- 
standing of the feminine. 
It is said that there are about 55 genera of plants that 
contain one or more species, which so secure themselves in the 
matter of perpetuation, and among the more familiar are the vio- 
lets, the peas (and the latter produce an abundance of cliesto- 
gamous bloom) wood sorrel, jewel- weed, etc. Yet all of these 
plants show evidence of their fear of degenerancy of self-fertiliza- 
tion for they all produce developed flowers that solicit the aid of 
insect life in the transmission of pollen. A careful study of the 
complex economics of the flower kingdom, positively astounds 
one by its system and forethought. 
ORIGIN OF DOUBLE FLOWERS. 
Reverting to the subject of double flowers, we may begin by 
eliminating those which in a botanical sense are not double. This 
sweeps away all the so-called double Chrysanthemums, Asters, 
Daisies, Sunflowers^ — all the Composites, in fact, which owe their 
epithet "double" to conditions which are not the same as those to 
which the botanist applies the world "double." Another class of 
so-called double flowers occurs when a petal, instead of remaining 
single, divides or branches either radially (some Mallows) or col- 
laterally (Primrose). What, then, are double flowers? In a 
strict botanical sense, double flowers are those in which an addi- 
tional number of petals is produced, either by actual increase of 
number, or by the substitution of petals for stamens or for car- 
pels, or both (Rose Camellia, etc.). 
It is quite possible that the causes which bring about these 
various kinds of double flowers are also diverse, and this being 
so, it may be of great practical importance to detennine what they 
