CHAP. I. 
REGULAR METAMORPHOSIS. 
541 
" Every flower, with its peduncle and bracteolae, being the 
developement of a flower-bud, and flower-buds being alto- 
gether analogous to leaf-buds, it follows, as a corollary, that 
every flower, with its peduncle and bracteolae, is a metamor- 
phosed branch. 
" And further, the flowers being abortive branches, what- 
ever the laws are of the arrangement of branches with respect 
to each other, the same will be the laws of the arrangement 
of flowers with respect to each other. 
" In consequence of a flower and its peduncle being a 
branch in a particular state, the rudimentary or metamor- 
phosed leaves which constitute bracteae, floral envelopes, and 
sexes, are subject to exactly the same laws of arrangement as 
regularly formed leaves." ( Outline of the First Principles of 
Botany, edit. 2.) 
Therefore all theories of structure inconsistent with these 
propositions must of necessity be vicious. For this reason 
there is no difficulty in rejecting the hypothesis of dedoublement 
(unlining) of Dunal, which assumes that in a flower every organ 
consists of two parts, one standing in front of the other, and 
forming what he calls a chorisie ; than which no doctrine 
more utterly unsupported by facts, or more entirely irreconcil- 
able with whatever is known of structure, can easily be ima- 
gined. To admit it would be to overturn all the admitted 
rules of philosophy, by exalting a few seeming exceptions to 
great general laws above those laws themselves. Neither do 
the speculations of Agardh upon this subject appear to be at 
all better founded. 
