THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 269 
divisions of the calyx of the cowslip from which they have 
sprung are developed into five well-formed leaves with form, 
colour, venation, and all parts like the root-leaves of the 
same plant, and during the past season we grew in our green¬ 
house a fuschia the calyx of which was composed of beauti¬ 
fully formed leaves. 
Corolla. —It is not at all uncommon to see a malformed 
branch on a rose tree, composed of the altered elements of 
what seemed intended for a flower; hence the calyx is com¬ 
posed ^ of green leaves, the corolla also of green leaves, with 
sometimes a tincture of colour. And here, also, our fuschia 
presented some petals, with the form and colour of the leaf. 
We often see in charlock both calyx and corollas leafy, and 
their texture rough and green. 
Stamens and Pistils. —In true double flowers these organs 
are transformed into petals, and thus the double rose cannot 
fecundate. New sorts, however, are obtained by fecundation, 
but that is in cases where the metamorphosis of the parts is 
incomplete. 
It is, perhaps, in the white water-lily, Nymplma alba, that 
the transition from leaves to calyx, from calyx to corollas, 
and from these to stamina, can be best traced. In the 
fuschia we have before referred to we have examples of leaf¬ 
like petals, so also of petals with anthers, just forming on 
one side, to others, in which ^but a small portion indeed of 
the petaloid matter is adherent to an anther. 
In fine, to sum up our remarks on this subject, which we 
have found it most difficult to elucidate without a quantity 
of drawings, we would say that in most cases of abnormal 
flowers, some facts of importance connected with vegetable 
morphology may be observed; but the truth is, that most 
persons collect only typical forms. Double flowers especially 
teach us much in this way; and the flowers of the double 
cherry, with its sometimes bunch of green leaves in the 
centre of a mass of petals, is sufficient illustration after all 
of most of the remarks in this chapter, which we conclude 
with the following condensed illustrations from Balfour^s 
* Botany."’ 
‘‘ Bracts are very evidently allied to leaves both in their 
colour and form. Like leaves, too, they produce buds in 
their axil. The monstrosity called hen-and-chicken daisy, 
&c., bends on the development of buds in the axil of the 
leaves of the involucre. The sepals frequently present the 
appearance of true leaves as in the rose. Petals sometimes 
become green-like leaves, as in the variety of Ranunculus 
Philonotis mentioned by De Candolle, and in a variety of 
XLII. 19 
