CHAP. 1.] VIOLACEiE. 281 



where are the stamens I It is necessary to pull 

 the flower to pieces to discover them. Com- 

 mencing this work of destruction, which I 

 always feel remorse at perpetrating, for I love 

 flowers too well not to feel pain at destroying 

 them ; commencing this work, I repeat, the 

 petals and the sepals must be carefully removed 

 from the stem ; a task of some little difiiculty, 

 as both sepals and petals are firmly attached to 

 the receptacle, and the lower petal must have 

 its spur opened with a pin to avoid hurting the 

 dehcate organs it contains. When the outer 

 coverings of calyx and corolla are thus both 

 removed, the seed-producing organs will be dis- 

 covered, and it will be found that they consist 

 of five very curiously-formed stamens, with as 

 singular a pistil, in their centre. The stamens 

 have no apparent filaments, and the anthers, 

 which seem to be inserted in the receptacle, 

 look like seeds, each tipped with a bit of brown 

 skin, and having what appears to be a white rib 

 in front. This rib is the anther ; and the 

 broader part is the dilated filament, which is 

 drawn out beyond it, on both sides, and above, 

 so as to form the brown tip above the anther 

 already mentioned. Two of the anthers have 

 each, in addition to these peculiarities, a long 

 tail, which the spur of the lower petal concealed, 

 when the flower was in a perfect state. The 



