CuaptTer VI. 
FLOWER AND FRUIT. 
The flower is the reproductive organ of the plant. 
We have already considered vegetative reproduction 
whereby a portion is severed from the plant body and 
established as a new individual. In such eases the 
offspring may be regarded as merely a part of the 
parent growing independently in a different place. 
There has been no break in the continuity of the life 
processes. There has been nothing but ordinary 
growing or multiplication of cells to produce new stem, 
root, and leaves. True sexual reproduction in which 
the flower is coneerned is an entirely different thing. 
Each time there is reproduction through the flower an 
absolutely new start is made from a single cell, and 
the seed which is the finished product is really a young 
plant of a new generation. It is the flower then that 
forms the connecting link between one generation and 
another. Within it and forming part of it are the 
structures which produce and protect the seed. 
Already we have seen that most ordinary flowers 
have sepals for protection, petals for the attraction of 
insects, stamens for the production of pollen, and 
earpels to protect the ovules which develop into seeds. 
The surprising thing is that all these members of the 
flower do not differ in origin from ordinary foliage 
leaves. It would not be right to affirm that they are 
modified foliage leaves. It is nearer the truth to 
say that among the earliest plants there was no dis- 
tinction between foliage and floral leaves, but that, as 
time went on and a variety of plants arose, there were 
some in which certain leaves restricted themselves to 
the work of photosynthesis and transpiration, while 
others devoted themselves entirely to the work of 
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