150 BOTANY 
reproduction. The former became the foliage, the 
latter the floral leaves. If we examine the leaves of 
an ordinary fern we shall find that practically all of 
them are both assimilatory and reproductive. They 
contain chlorophyll for photosynthesis, and have, along 
their margins, spores for reproduction. In the 
lomarias (Fig. 102), and some other forms, however, 
there are special leaves which alone bear the spores; 
and in these the green blade is much reduced. These 
leaves have been specialised for reproduction. The 
floral leaves of a flowering plant have of course become 
much more highly specialised than the reproductive 
leaves of the lomarias, but, nevertheless, one helps us 
to understand the other. Again, though in most 
flowers the distinction of the parts is clearly marked, 
there are others, like the water-lily, eaetus, and 
anemone in which there may be a gradual transition 
from one kind of member to another, so that it is 
impossible to say where the sepals end and the petals 
begin, or, indeed, to make a sharp line of distinction 
between any two groups of members. This would 
indicate that the members of the different whorls or 
rings forming the flower have had the same origin. 
The primrose flower will often carry us a step further. 
Tn this flower, especially in certain varieties, the sepals 
oceasionally have the form of foliage leaves. The 
structure, veining, and texture exactly correspond. 
This connects the foliage leaves with the sepals, and, 
through them, with petals, stamens, and ecarpels. <A 
flower, then, is a shoot in which the leaves are 
specialised for reproductive purposes and have been 
erowded together, generally in rings or whorls, on the 
much-shortened branch which forms the stalk, and is 
continued as the receptacle of the flower. The recep- 
tacle is that part of the shortened branch to which the 
various whorls of the flower are attached. It is 
generally soft and fleshy and, as a rule, somewhat 
