Vol. HHL, No. 11.] BULLETIN OF THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB, [New York, November, 1872, 
89. Apocynum, No. 2.—Looking deep down into the bell of Apocy- 
num androsamifolium we see what may be likened to a striped conical 
tent. A more satisfactory view may be had with the aid of a magni- 
fier. This cone is formed by the five anthers meeting in a point : 
the stripes are the narrow intervals between them. The anthers are 
shaped like the head of an arrow, but the ends of the barbs are 
somewhat incurved and conceal the shaft or filament, which is be- 
sides bent inward toward the base of the style. This incurving of 
the base of the anthers makes the lower end of the space or groove 
between them a, little wider than the upper part of the passage and 
might serve to catch the leg or proboscis of a fly and guide it to the 
groove. Facing this wider part of theinterval, but a little lower, are 
the sharp triangular projections near the base of the corolla, and 
beneath, within the filaments, are the five glands or nectaries, prob- 
ably representing an inner circle of stamens. The pink stripes of 
the corolla are alternate with its lobes, consequently opposite the 
stamens ; they are sharply defined and form a sort of crown or scale 
at the junction of the lobes. 
On investigating the interior of our conical tent, we find a curious 
and quite complicated arrangement. In the first place, the lower 
part or barb of the anther is destitute of pollen. Then, where the 
filament joins the anther, is a membrane surrounding the middle of 
the style and uniting it pretty strongly to the stamens, serving at 
once to hold the anthers in their fixed position, and to screen the 
base of the style below from the pollen above. The anther consists 
of two cells, which, when separated below, form what we-have called 
the barbs. Above the insertion of the filament theinner walls of these 
cells are united into a short column or wall, and further up their 
edges again become free, and spreading outward nearly meet the edges 
of the outer walls of their respective cells, so that the slit for the 
escape of the pollen is almost lateral. Thus the inner side of the 
anther presents, near the top, the appearance of a smaller two celled 
anther within the larger one. We may call this apparent anther 
antherion, or little anther. Just below it, on each side of the column 
mentioned as formed by the consolidation of the inner cell-walls, 
are two little pockets, just at the end of the openings for the escape 
of the pollen in the sides of the antherion. These pockets are empty, 
unless they may contain the cell lining in a somewhat disintegrated 
form: Iam not sure of this point. The upper portion of the cells 
of the antherion are also destitute of pollen, and apparently serve 
only as a protection for the small portion below them which is 
really polliniferous. The pollen grain is compounded of four sphe- 
rules as in Periploca. ae 
The pollen bearing portions of the anther, then, it will be seen, 
open along the lateral edges, and are separated from the correspond- 
ing edges of the adjacent anthers only by a very narrow groove, S80 
that, if a small rough thread be drawn through this groove, the 
pollen on both sides will be disturbed, that is the pollen in the righ 
hand cell of one anther and the left hand cell of the other, This 
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