158 M. Walpers on the Irregular Form 



out their whole length ; and as these two bundles stand 

 on each side of the ovarium, they must be imagined to 

 have originated from a staminal tube slit superiorly and 

 inferiorly at the same time. 

 /. Of the ten stamina, that standing at the upper and that 

 standing at the lower floral pole are free in their whole 

 length (the first belongs to the second or inner, the latter 

 to the first or outer circle) ; the other 8 stamina are si- 

 tuated in bundles of 4 and 4 on each side of the ovarium. 

 (This case has hitherto been observed only in Platypo- 

 dium, See ^ Linnaea/ vol. xii. p. 420.) 

 Besides these, the stamina at times cohere more or less with 

 the petals. The case most frequently occurring is the cohe- 

 sion of nine stamina to a superiorly slit tube with a tenth 

 free filament, and is to be explained thus : the tenth stamen, 

 opposed to the suture of the pod, stands furthest from the 

 ovarium, and is consequently the least subjected to pressure 

 and the cohesion arising therefrom. That this is actually 

 the case is moreover evident from the stamina situated su- 

 periorly on both sides of the ovarium entering successively 

 into a more and more intimate cohesion towards the inferior 

 floral pole, so that the stamina following on each side the free 

 stamina, which belong to the outer circle, are frequently but 

 slightly connected with the rest, w hile the succeeding ones co- 

 here higher and higher, — a statement, which will be found to be 

 confirmed in the greater number of diadelphic Papilionacece, 

 The other cohesions above-mentioned must also be ex- 

 plained in the same manner, fi-om the general or partial, 

 greater or smaller pressure which the stamina have to suffer 

 from the adjacent floral parts; and there consequently exists 

 no reason, as is also evident from the above-mentioned va- 

 luable researches of Schleiden and Vogel, for denying to the 

 merely mechanical influences all action on the form and posi- 

 tion of vegetable organs, as many botanists have done who 

 have endeavoured to reduce all phaenomena of vegetative life 

 to the influence of higher influences, which unfortunately in 

 most cases approaches near to scientific mysticism, by which 

 little good is gained. 



