What is a Flower ? 
4§5 
1878.] 
than that which they present to us. They help to make us 
familiar with the results at present attained, but they blind 
us to the processes , to the laws of perpetually changing life 
which have given to the vegetation of the world a different 
aspeCt from age to age. 
In order to classify results we give the highest value to 
characters which are most fixed and permanent, and these 
are to be found in the organs which are earliest developed 
and most universal. But in order to see what Nature is 
doing, and what she promises to do, — what point she has 
reached, and what is likely to be her next step forward, — we 
must look not to the old and permanent, but to the new and 
the changing. 
There is scarcely anything more permanent in a plant than 
its organs of reproduction : the forms which these assume 
are therefore of high value in the distinction of genera and 
species. It is true, also, that when these organs take the 
form of pistil and stamens they are more complex than, and 
show a decided advance in development over, the lower and 
simpler form of archegonium and antheridium. On these 
grounds it is correct to distinguish pollen-bearing from 
antherozoid-bearing plants, and convenient to use the varia- 
tions in pistils and stamens as permanent marks of genera 
and species. 
But is it correct: to make “ pollen-bearing ” synonymous 
with “ flowering,” and to regard pistil and stamens as the 
essentials of a flower, calyx and corolla as only accessories ? 
There is an immense difference in appearance between a 
rose and a catkin, between the “ flower ” of an iris and the 
“ flower ” of a grass. A large part of the beauty of the 
world and the poetry of life would be blotted out if plants 
had no corolla. Can it be true that this last and loveliest 
outcome of vegetative force is a mere superfluity ? a bit of 
meretricious tinsel just put on by a few clever plants to 
catch bees and butterflies, as a girl uses a bright ribbon to 
catch wandering eyes ? But the girl’s best and most at- 
tractive ornament, after all, is her face, which was made by 
no art of hers. Like the flower, it is the inevitable product 
of internal forces, ordained from the hour of birth — the love- 
liest thing in all the world. And is the beauty of womanhood 
only a lure for men ? 
Let the following arguments be fairly weighed 
1. Reproductive organs are common to all plants of every 
grade, and the process of fertilisation is essentially the same 
whether it be by antherozoids or by pollen. Reproductive 
organs do not, therefore, in themselves constitute a flower 
