Fruits ripening on flower-stalk.
Evergreen Magnolia, Chiswick.
The pattern is composed of the globular spirals of the cluster of fruits,
then the conical spirals of the scars left by the stamens,
then the scars of the petals and sepals,
and finally the line of the bud scales.
This (relative) simplicity of structure suggests that the Magnolia
family is close to the pattern of the earliest flowers.