. The theory and practice of horticulture; or, An attempt to explain the chief operations of gardening upon physiological grounds. e middle of the flower stand the sexes, called stamens^nd pistU, of which the pistil occupies the centre, and thestamens surround it; except in those cases where the ,se?:esare produced in separate flowers, when each sex is central in itsown flower. The stamens consist of a filament ^nd an anther,in the interior of the latter of which is secreted a powderysubstance termed pollen. The pistil consists of ovary, style,and stigma, in of the first of which
. The theory and practice of horticulture; or, An attempt to explain the chief operations of gardening upon physiological grounds. e middle of the flower stand the sexes, called stamens^nd pistU, of which the pistil occupies the centre, and thestamens surround it; except in those cases where the ,se?:esare produced in separate flowers, when each sex is central in itsown flower. The stamens consist of a filament ^nd an anther,in the interior of the latter of which is secreted a powderysubstance termed pollen. The pistil consists of ovary, style,and stigma, in of the first of which are ovules oryoung seeds. Although the floral envelopes may be, and often are, absent. 82 TRANSFORMATIONS OF FLOWERS. wholly or in part, yet the sexes are always present. Conse-quently the latter are all that is essential to a flower, and nopart can be a flower from which they are absent. Notwithstanding the difference inform and office of the partsof a flower, they have evidently a strong tendency in cultivatedplants to change into or assume the appearance of each the Poppy, the Garden Anemone, and many others, the. Fig. XV.—Transformation of origans in an Amaryllis. stamens change into petals; in the Anemone, the Ranunculus,&c., the pistil changes into petals; in the Primrose, Cowslip,&c., the calyx changes into petals; in the Houseleek, thestamens become pistils; and so on. Hence the origin ofdouble flowers. In a double Barbadoes Lily, described by mein the Transactions of the Horticuliwal Society, in which theparts were very much confused, the young seeds were borne bythe edges of the stamen-like petals (Fig. XV.). In their ordinary state the parts of a flower are extremelyunlike leaves, -and each has its allotted office, which is not the TEANSFORMATIONS OF FLOWERS. 83 office of a leaf; they are also incapable of forming leaf-budsin their axils. But, although such is the case, there is found astrong and general tendency on the parts of both the floralenvelopes an
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