96 THE FLOWERING PLANT. 
gynandrous stamen is fused with the gynecium, upon the top of 
which it is perched. 
External Characters.—Examine carefully a buttercup stamen 
(fig. 30). It presents two regions, a stalk or filament, and a 
thickened head or anther. The latter possesses a grooved anther 
lobe on either side, the two being separated by a continuation of 
the filament, called the connective. Within the anther lobes a 
yellow dust is formed, the pollen, which escapes by a longitudinal 
slit formed on either side in the ripe anther. All the parts 
described present different forms according to the plant exa- 
mined. 
The filament may be very short or absent, when the anther is 
sessile, as in the epipetalous stamens of primrose. If they are 
long, the stamens may be exserted, 7.e., project from the corolla. 
Filaments are generally more or less slender, but they may be flat- 
tened, as in some of the stamens of white waterlily. Appendages 
or outgrowths are sometimes present. In the violet and pansy, 
for example, there are five stamens, the anthers of which appear 
at first sight to be united, though in reality only closely approxi- 
mated. Carefully slit open the spur of the lower petal, when two 
little white rods will be seen projecting into it. These, when 
traced, prove to be outgrowths from the filaments of the two 
lower stamens, close to their junction with the anthers. 
If the connective is a direct prolongation of the filament, the 
anther is basifixed, and in that case its lobes are either lateral, 
internal, or external; and the descriptive terms innate, introrse, 
and extrorse are used. The last two are included in the wider 
meaning word adnate. It frequently happens that the filament 
is attached to the back of the anther, which is then basifixed, 
and if in this case the attachment is very loose, the anther can 
swing freely about or is versatile, as in grasses (fig. 50) and 
white lily. When the connective is narrow the anther lobes are 
parallel, as in buttercup, but it may be broadened so as to make 
the lobes divergent, ¢.g., in marjoram, dead nettle, and foxglove. 
The connective may even form a sort of cross-bar, hinged upon 
the filament. This state of things is seen in the meadow and 
garden sages and an ornamental crimson form belonging to the 
same genus (fig. 46). The andrecium here consists of four 
stamens, two of which are aborted or reduced to minute rudi- 
ments, like the odd stamen of snapdragon. The connectives of 
the other two are elongated, and bear a perfect anther lobe at 
one end and an aborted one at the other. The connective does 
not usually extend beyond the anther lobes, except in some few 
cases, as in violet and pansy (fig. 51), where it forms an orange- 
coloured triangular expansion in this position. 
