324 FUNCTIONS OF STAMENS AND PISTILS. 



as in compound, and even umbelliferous 

 flowers, to be reversed, for the pistils are in- 

 variably central, or internal, in every simple 

 flower, and would therefore, if drawn out 

 into a monoecious spike, be above the sta- 

 mens. 



Many curious contrivances of Nature serve 

 to bring the anthers and stigmas together. 

 In Gloriosa, Andr. Repos. t. 129, the style 

 is bent, at a right angle from the very base, 

 for this evident purpose. In Saxifragay and 

 Fariiassia, Engl Bot. f, 82, the stamens 

 lean one or two at a time over the stigma, 

 retiring after they have shed their pollen, and 

 o-iving place to others ; which wonderful (Eco- 

 nomy is very striking in the garden Rue, 

 Ruta graveokns, whose stout and firm fila- 

 ments cannot be disturbed from the posture 

 in which they may happen to be, and evince 

 a spontaneous movement unaffected by ex- 

 ternal causes. The five filaments of the 

 Cclosia, Cock's-comb, are connected at their 

 lower part by a membranous web, which in 

 moist weather is relaxed, and the stamens 

 spread for shelter under the concave lobes of 

 the corolla. When the air is dry the con^ 



