\ 
234 ON THE ENGLISH MINTS. 
It is now doubtless quite sufficiently understood that the length of 
the stamens, so much relied npon by several of the older authors as a 
diagnostic character, is utterly valueless for that pui-pose. All the 
common forms, notably S7/Ivestris, Jiirsuta, sativa, and arve7isis, may 
be seen not unfrequently with exserted and included stamens in the 
same individual. There does not seem to be here any tendency to- 
wards the state of things seen in Linum and Primula. It is far most 
usually the stamens that are variable in length, and the style is only 
very rarely not protruded beyond the corolla. An idea of the wide 
variation in leno'th wliich the filaments and styles occasionally show 
may be perhaps best gathered from the following list, all the permuta- 
tions given in which were noted in a single capitate head of the ordi- 
nary M. hirsiita in this neighbourhood last autumn: — 
No. 1. Four stamens nearly equalling each other and the pistil, all 
much longer than the corolla. 
No. 3. Four stamens reaching only the base of the corolla lobes; 
pistil as in No, 1. 
No. 3. Like No. 1, but the stamens five in number. 
No. 4. Pistil much exceeding corolla, all the stamens unequal, two 
nearly as in No. 3, two just exceeding the corolla. 
No, 5. As in No. 1, but one of the anthers nearly sessile, not at- 
taining the base of the corolla lobe. 
No. 6, Pistil as in No. 1, one stamen exceeding it, two just shorter. 
one equalling corolla. 
No. 7. Pistil just exceeding corolla, two stamens considerably longer, 
two reaching base of the corolla lobes. 
No. 8. As in No. 7, but three stamens long and one short. 
No. 9. One stamen exceeding, one equalling corolla, two stamens 
and pistil just attaining the base of the lobes. 
No. 10. Pistil just exceeding corolla, one stamen equalling corolla, 
one reaching to the base of the lobes, two shorter. 
Taking the genus as a whole, with us No. 2 appears to be the ffost 
usual,* No. 1 the next usual combination, but whether in No. 2 the 
seed is less usually developed than in No, 1, as seems likely, or whether 
* 
iimn 
on exsertes, dont quelques botanistes se sont servis pour distinguer certaines 
especcs, ne parait pas constautj anssi est-il a pen pres abandonne par les bota- 
nistes moderncs. Pour ma part, la plante que je Tiens de decrire {M, dubia, 
Chaix), est la seule qui m'ait otTert de3 etamines incluses." 
