264 The Sex and Generative Organs of Plants. 



is awakened in the plant, which becomes thereafter devoted 

 no longer to the individual, but to the kind. In most cases 

 the flower appears after the leaves, and on the stem and its 

 branches above them. 



The process of flowering sets up immediately an action an- 

 tagonistic to the formation of leaves, in so far, that it impedes 

 or prevents their growth. One might thus say, that two 

 different natures stand upon each other, a lower one devoted 

 to the parent, and to the existence of the individual ; and a 

 higher one, which labours for the future, in as much as it 

 prepares and completes the germ of new individuals. In 

 carrying out, however, this last purpose, the plant makes use 

 of the same organs as if employed in self-preservation, i, e, 

 it uses the stem and the leaves, yet in such way, that they 

 become metamorphosed and subservient to the purposes of 

 sexual action. The stem or twig, (the part which especially 

 represents the tendency to growth in length,) is contracted 

 in length and breadth. It becomes pedicle and peduncle. 

 The other chief constituent of the upper growth, the leaf, is 

 changed into anthers and pistil. Of these two parts, the 

 so-narned sexual organs of plants, the former exerts the 

 male, the latter the female action. These two altered kinds 

 of leaves form the flower, which is designed by the antago- 

 nistical force of its parts to create a new individual^ the 

 seed. They, therefore, by their mutual operation, produce 

 the germ or embryo. Between these altered leaves, which 

 are necessary to reproduction, and the green unaltered 

 leaves, we see in most cases a special ring of leaves, which 

 are also transformed, viz. the flower, which is commonly 

 composed of two forms of leaves, the sepals and the petals. 

 They are to a certain degree preparatory forms, meant to 

 introduce the highest and the last and most complete forms 

 and actions in the plant. This whole system of transformed 

 leaves arranged into one wonderful and beautifully arranged 

 mass, the flower, is especially distinguished by a difler- 



