15 
FLOWER OF 
GOOSEFOOT. 
mens, which are all exactly alike, and opposite which 
are five other external parts, forming a star with five 
rays, the two series corresponding 
precisely the one with the other.* 
This is one of the simplest of known 
forms: should a flower be reduced 
much lower, there is scarcely room 
for the manifestation of special sym¬ 
metry. 
31. The most complicated structures are merely 
different in degree. In the Rose, in the Crowfoot, in 
the Magnolia, or in the Water- 
lily itself, the same class of 
facts pervades the organisa¬ 
tion. Among those plants in 
which augmented number pro¬ 
duces a very complex condi¬ 
tion is the Verticord. In this 
flower we have five fringed 
o 
bodies on the outside of the 
whole; those bodies consist 
FLOWER OF VERTICORD. 
each of five arms, of which the left and right exter¬ 
nal arms correspond with each other, and the second 
inner left corresponds with the second inner right 
arm ; so that we begin with a structure of five parts, 
each of which is subdivided into five others. In the 
next place five more parts are placed within and 
between the first, as if to insure the requisite 
balance. Then come ten (twice five) other bodies 
(scales), which stand, five opposite and five between 
the second series of five. Finally, we have ten other 
parts (twice five again), completing the symmetry of 
the whole structure, and alternating with the ten 
* Its numerical structure is 5 + 5. 
