PT8TILL0DY. 



303 



Pistillody'of the stamens. This change whereby the sta- 

 mens assume more or less the appearance of pistils is 

 more commonly met with than is the metamorphosis 

 of the envelopes of the flow^er into carpels. In some 

 cases the whole of the stamen appears to be changed, 

 while in others it is the filament alone that is altered, 

 the anther being deficient, or rudimentary ; while, in a 

 third class of cases, the filament is unaffected, and 

 the anther undergoes the change in question. In 

 those instances in which the filament appears to be 

 the portion most imphcated, it becomes dilated so as 

 to resemble a leaf-sheath rather than a leaf-stalk, as it 

 does usually. 



One of the most curious cases of this kind is that 

 recorded in the ' Botanical Magazine,' (tab. 5160, f. 

 4) as having occurred in Begonia 

 frigida already alluded to, and in 

 which, in the centre of a male 

 flower, were four free ovoid ovaries 

 alternating with as many stamens. 

 In the normal flowers of this plant, 

 as is well known, the male flowers 

 have several stamens, while in the 

 female flowers the ovary is strictly 

 inferior, so that, in the singular 

 flower just described, the perianth 

 was inferior instead of being supe- 

 rior, as it is usually. It should be 

 added also that the perianth in these 

 malformed flowers was precisely like 

 that which occurs ordinarily in the 

 male flowers. 



In some varieties of the orange, 

 called by the French " bigarades 

 comues," the thalamus of the flower, 

 which is usually short, and termi- 

 nated by a glandular ring-like disc, is prolonged into 

 a Httle stalk or gynophore, bearing a ring of super- 

 numerary carpels. These carpels are isolated one 



Fig. 161. Super- 

 numerary carpels in 

 the orange, arising 

 from substitution <3 

 pistils for stamens. 



