490 What is a Flower ? [October, 
are small and green. The change .of the protoplasm from a 
dichromatic to a monochromatic condition has not been 
effected., for want of vital energy. The phenomenon of 
increased blossom arising from checked growth is merely 
the result of a transfer of energy from one of the great 
secondary waves to another. The splendid flowers of many 
monocotyledons have probably been hastened towards ma- 
turity by the almost total suppression of the osseous 
secondary wave. The energy not used in the formation of 
stem and branches has been concentrated upon the blossom. 
Dr. Masters records that when Kerria Japonica was first 
introduced into Europe it bore single flowers, but in a few 
years every existing plant had become double-blossomed. 
Doubtless the change of climate hastened its development, 
brought the wave rapidly to its climax, and, of course, the 
species would have died out in Europe but for artificial 
propagation. 
The average energy in those wild plants which bear 
coloured flowers is, at this epoch, sufficient to produce 
monochromatic protoplasm in one whorl only. An increase 
of energy brings the other whorls into the same condition, 
and the flower is doubled. 
5. Flowers, then, are the ultimate term in that wonderful 
series of biological phenomena exhibited in the Vegetable 
Kingdom. Their essential characters are — concentration 
of external parts producing visible symmetry, and of inter- 
nal energy producing monochromatic protoplasm, or, as in 
white flowers, the absence of protoplasm, from defeCt of 
energy at the moment of consummation. The reproductive 
organs associated with them are imperfectly developed 
petals, whose office is to carry on the specific wave until it 
reaches that point of concentration at which these organs 
also assume their ultimate character, when the doubled 
flower marks the faCt that — in at least that place and time 
- — the last of the four great secondary waves has reached 
its climax. When the species everywhere attains the same 
condition, that specific wave is about to enter upon its 
descending phase, and the species will shortly disappear. 
It is probable that we can as yet form no conception of 
the splendour which flowers are destined to bestow upon 
this world in some far-off future age. We are yet in the 
epoch of foliage rather than of blossom ; and beautiful as 
this is in its varied forms and tints, from tender spring to 
gorgeous autumn, when the flowers open and the brilliant 
secondary colours flash out amidst the primary green, we 
own that a new glory has been conferred upon the beautiful 
earth. 
