You see, a flower depends upon its surroundings for its shape. If its surroundings (and of course this includes its insect visitors) are such as to favor its growth in the line of petals, it does so. But if for some reason it becomes easier for it to grow and be fertilized in some other way, perhaps by making abundance of light pollen which is blown by the wind, as in the maple trees, then it may gradually lose its petals, as it depends less and less on insects and more and more on the wind for cross-fertilization. Nothing in life stands still; it is always moving,—going on or going back. And this, we know, is just the same in human life. [Illustration: [Corolla]] We cannot stand still; we must keep growing wiser and stronger and better, or else we must do the opposite. SIGNS OF OTHER TIMES. [Illustration: [Flower]] In the beginning flowers seem to have had their petals all separate from each other. Some do still, and these we call polypetalous, because “poly-” means many, and they have many petals. But other flowers, like our morning-glory, have no separate petals; all are grown together into a tube with a bright border. But this tube and border tell us a little story if we are able to hear it. They tell us of the time when the morning-glory had several petals. More than this, they tell us just how many it had. If we were to guess we should probably say five, because it seems so fond of the number five, with its five nectaries, five nectar guides, five stamens, and five sepals. If we guessed five we should guess just right. There is no doubt but that once upon a time the plants from which our morning-glories are descended had five separate petals. The morning-glories themselves manage it differently now, but it took them a long time to do it. They were working away, long before the great pyramids of Egypt were built, to get their five petals united into one piece. But it is done, and they have learned how to twist the flower up tightly in the bud and then unroll it in all its glory. [Illustration: [Flower]] They never have five petals now, but they still bear traces of it. Look at the little notch on the border, halfway between two nectar guides. Does that tell us anything? Count the notches. Five, you see. Look at the line that runs from the notch down to the bottom of the flower. The corolla looks as though it had been folded along those lines. You can easily see five long creases ending in a notch. The flower is folded along these lines in the bud, but we think the lines have yet another meaning.