REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS OF PLANTS. 121 
parts, called the filament! (d, fig. 78), and the anther? (a, a, fig. 78). 
The filament is the modified stalk of the leaf, the anther its blade. 
The filament is generally slender, as the name indicates; in some 
flowers it is extremely so, but in others it is thick and stout, and 
in some it is altogether absent ; whilst the anthers are sometimes pro- 
duced on the pistil itself, which is a peculiarity of orchids. The 
anther is the essential part of the stamen; the filament serves merely 
for its support. The anther is attached to the filament in various 
ways, sometimes firmly, or even as covering the mere extremity of its 
surface, and sometimes by an extremely slender neck, so as to be liable 
to be shaken by the slightest breath of wind, or by the touch of the 
smallest insect. The anther, when matured, which it is when the flower 
is in full perfection, produces pollen Pollen is a fine dust, which, 
when examined by the microscope, is seen to consist of minute cells. 
The anther consists of two lobes, corresponding to the two sides of 
the blade of a leaf, and these both produce pollen. Pollen is produced 
in cells or cases, which burst and scatter it. It is essential to the 
fecundation of flowers—that is, to make them productive of seed ; and in 
order to this, it must be applied to the stigma, through which the minute 
pollen grains find their way to the germen and its ovules. The fecunda- 
tion of plants is often very much assisted by insects, which stir the 
stamens, and set the pollen afloat in the air. In some plants, the stamen 
has a peculiar property called wrritability, so that when the filament is 
touched, it moves, and closes upon the pistil, as may be seen in the 
barberry, the stamens of which can readily be made to move in this way 
by touching them near the base with the point of a needle. The stamens 
and pistils are ordinarily found in the same flower, arranged as already 
described, the stamens forming the whorl which immediately surrounds 
the pistils: such flowers are called hermaphrodite* In many plants, 
however, there are flowers which have stamens only, and other flowers 
which have pistils only, and the flowers are then described as male and 
female flowers. The pollen of the male flowers is often extremely 
abundant, and is carried about in the air, as may be seen in the hazel, 
from which it may be driven off in clouds by shaking the branches at the 
time of flowering. The male flowers of the hazel are in long yellowish- 
white catkins, which have a very beautiful appearance as they hang from 
the branches in early spring, before the leaves are expanded ; the female 
flowers are small and red, situated at the tips of buds. Plants which 
have the stamens and pistils in different flowers on the same plant, as the 
+ , 
1 From Latin jilum, a thread. 2 From Greek anthos, a flower. 3 Latin, ‘ dust.’ 
4 That is ‘of both sexes.’ The word is derived from the mythological story of Hermaphrodi- 
tus, the son of Hermés (Mercury) and Aphrodité (Venus), who, when bathing, grew together 
with a nymph into one person. 
