BOOK VI. 
MORPHOLOGY. 
527 
nothing but leaves of the same nature as those of the stem, 
must be concluded from this, that w^hen plants, roses, and 
Geum rivale for example, become, in consequence of exces- 
sive nutriment, proliferous, the calycine leaves, w^hich before 
were small and dry, expand into leaves in size, colour, figure, 
texture, and substance, exactly like those of the stem. Hence 
it is not to be doubted, that the calyx and the leaves of the 
stem w^ere in the beginning alike." 
As to the petals, " It is often very difficult to distinguish 
them from the calyx. The w^hite corolla of Helleborus niger, 
after flowering, assumes the green appearance of the calyx. 
In luxuriant flowers of Rosa and Geum, the corolla some- 
times becomes wholly green, and assumes the foliaceous na- 
ture of the calyx. As the calyx is nothing but leaves, and as 
each leaf contains in its axil the rudiment of a plant con- 
sisting of the rudiments of leaves of a future year, it follows 
that the petals are of necessity the rudiment immediately 
within the calycine leaves ; the petals, therefore,'"would have 
been leaves another year, if flowers had not been produced." 
As to the stamens. " From double flowers it is apparent 
that stamens do change into petals and petals into calyx. This 
is so well known that it need not be insisted on. Now, as from 
the axil of every leaf arises the rudiment of a plant, and from 
the axil of the calyx are produced the petals, which are 
nothing but more tender leaves, and as these petals must have, 
like other leaves, the rudiments of leaves in their axils, it follows 
that stamens are so, for they can be transmuted into petals, as 
the petals can into the leaves of the calyx." 
As to the pistil. The evidence of this being also reducible 
to leaves, is taken from a change observed in the flowers of 
Carduus heterophyllus and tataricus, in which the style was 
changed into two green leaves like bracts, and from the com- 
mon conversion of the pistil into leaves in proliferous in- 
dividuals of the rose, the anemone, and others. I do not, 
however, find any clear evidence of Linnaeus having enter- 
tained a distinct idea of the true origin and structure of the 
pistil. 
The defects of this theory consisted, firstly, in its not ac- 
