128 Rev. P. Keith on the Structure of Living Fabrics. 



figure, surmounted with a small bag or viscus, and situated 

 immediately within the corolla, to which they are sometimes 

 attached. A very good example of them may be seen by 

 opening up the blossom of a Tulip or of a Lily. They are 

 apparently of no importance in the eye of the vulgar spectator, 

 but are essential to the botanical notion of a flower, because 

 indispensable to the formation of perfect fruit. The calyx is 

 sometimes wanting, and the corolla is sometimes wanting ; or 

 the calyx and corolla both, as in Euphorbia ; but the stamens 

 are never wanting, except through adventitious or accidental 

 causes. On the number of stamens, Linnaeus has founded 

 the first twelve classes of his artificial method; so that if any 

 flower is furnished with but one stamen, it is to be referred to 

 the first class; if with two, to the second class; if with three, 

 to the third, and so on in succession. The remaining classes 

 are founded on other peculiarities. 



Stamens are usually regarded as consisting of two parts, — a 

 filament and an anther. Yet the filament is not an indispen- 

 sable part of the apparatus of a flower. There are many 

 flowers without a filament, but no flower without an anther. 

 It is a viscus of one or more cells containing a powder, which 

 botanists denominate the pollen, and which, at the period of 

 the maturity of the flower, bursts its integuments and explodes. 



The pistil is a small and column-shaped, but often pestle- 

 shaped substance, occupying almost invariably the centre of 

 the flower, and encompassed immediately by the stamens, — 

 that is, when the plant is hermaphrodite. In monoecious and 

 dioecious plants, this arrangement cannot take place. It is 

 solitary as in the Cherry, or multiplicate as in the Apple and 

 Pear ; and is divisible, at least, into two, but very often into 

 three distinct parts, — the ovary, the style, and the stigma. The 

 Ovary is the lower extremity of the pistil, supporting the style 

 and stigma, and containing the rudiments of the fruit. In its 

 attachment, it is sessile or stipitate, inferior or superior; and 

 in its figure it is globular, or egg-shaped, or oblong, or com- 

 pressed, as in the Vetch. The Style, the middle portion of the 

 pistil, is a prolongation of the substance of the ovary, issuing 

 generally from its upper extremity, and supporting the stigma. 

 It is deciduous, and falls when the ovary is ripe or permanent, 

 and adheres to the fruit. The Stigma is a small and glandu- 

 lar-looking substance, crowning the style, and hence also de- 

 nominated the summit. Yet it is sometimes, though rarely, 

 lateral, as in Scheuchzeria. In its figure it is globular, or he- 

 mispherical, or conical, or petaloid ; and in its duration it is 

 like the style, sometimes deciduous, and sometimes persistent. 



Flowers are often found to be furnished with certain addi- 



