28 



PECULIARITIES OF THE STAMENS. 



The position of the stamens supplies characters of the highest 

 importance. Sometimes they grow upon the distended summit of 

 the flower-stalk, called the "receptacle," quite independent both of 

 the ovary and the surrounding calyx and corolla, which can be 

 removed without affecting them ; (Fig. 59.) sometimes they are attached 

 to the sepals or petals, springing as it were from the inner surface ; 

 (Fig. 60.) and sometimes they grow, along with the latter parts, upon 

 the summit of the ovary. (Fig. 61.) In the first case they are technically 

 called " hypogyuous," in the second " perigynous," and in the last 

 "epigynous." It is customary among the learned to say that a 

 flower, with its stamens, &.c., is "superior" when seated upon the 

 summit of the ovary, (Fig. 61.) and "inferior" when enclosing it. 

 (Figs. 59 and 60.) In the present volume these Latinisms are dispensed 

 with. It is important, as regards perigynous stamens, to observe whether 

 they are placed against the centre of the petals, or against the edges, that 

 is to say, whether " opposite " the petals or " alternate " with them. 



■put. 



'"^ ' st 



ror. 

 cdl. 



put. 



Fig. 59. 

 Hypogynous stamens. Fig. 60. Fig. CI. 



Perigj'nous stamens. Epigynous stamens. 



The stamens are not always independent of one another. The 

 filaments often adhere at the lower part, like the palm and fingers of 

 one's hand, and in the Mallow-family they combine so as to form a 

 tube. The anthers are no less apt to grow together. The immense 

 family of which the daisy is the type, has united anthers for one of its 

 chief marks ; and a similar thing occurs exceptionally in the gentia- 

 noUa, the Jasione, and the pansy. Sometimes there is a fixed dif- 

 ference in the length of the stamens. The Sage-family has two long 

 and two short ones ; the Cabbage-family, four long and two short ; 

 and where there are ten or eight in a flower, one -half are very often 

 twice as long as the remainder, as in the wood-sorrel and the Cldrkia. 

 The form and position of the stamens are best seen in flowers just 

 about to open ; and that of the pistils in flowers that are overblown. 



Such, then, are the four grand constituent parts of simple and com- 



