FLOWER. 181 



3. STAMENS. 



These are the slender filiform organs, which occm 

 immediately within the corolla. In the Mountain 

 Balm there are two ; in the Holly there are four ; in 

 the Lily Fig. 58 there are six ; in the American 

 Laurel there are ten ; and in the Peach, Magnolia and 

 Rose, there are numerous stamens ; and the numhev 

 of these, often determines to which of the Linneean 

 classes any plant belongs. Examined separately, each 

 stamen is usually found to consist of two parts ; the 

 summit or anther, and the filament, by which it is ele~ 

 vated above the calyx, corolla, or base of the flower ; 

 the former beiDg essential, and the latter a subservient 

 organ, which like the corolla is occasionally wanting. 



The Filaments are usually smooth and slender ; but 

 in Spider wort they are covered with down ; in Beth- 

 lehem star they are lanceolate, and in some few plants 

 they are so expanded as to resemble petals. The 

 broad filaments of one species of Clematis, have by 

 some writers been mistaken for the narrow petals of 

 an Atragene, but its plumose seeds, and the whole as- 

 pect of the plant, establishes its identity with the for- 

 mer. When the filaments are enclosed in the tube of 

 the corolla, they are said to be inserted, as in Lichni- 

 dea ; exserted, when they pass beyond it ; and declinate 

 when they curve towards the inferior side of the flow- 

 er, as in the. Hemerocaliis or Day Lilies. 



In the Barberry, the filaments are sensitive, spring- 

 ing forwards towards the centre of the flower, when 

 touched on their inner surface near the base. In all 

 cases they are evidently designed to elevate the anthers 

 above the base of the flower, to expose them to the 



17 



