88 OCCASIONAL PAPERS. 



Having stripped off the calyx, the corolla, and the 

 stamens we come to one solitary organ in the middle 

 the seed-bearing organ or pistil, with the stigma at 

 the summit. 



Here I come to, perhaps, the most interesting 

 portion of my paper, a peculiar feature in the 

 physiology of the Primrose. Those of us who have 

 heen in the habit of not merely gathering flowers but 

 also of examining them, must have noticed that in 

 some flowers of the Primrose there is a small 

 spherical body, a little larger, perhaps, than a pin's 

 head, in the centre ; that in others this organ is 

 invisible, and instead we have deeply hued yellow 

 bodies, five in number, clustering together. These 

 two varieties of the Primrose are known respectively 

 as Pin centres and Rose centres ; the same peculiarity 

 is observable in Cowslips and the garden Polyanthus. 

 The rose centre is accounted the more handsome of 

 the two and is cultivated to the exclusion of the pin 

 centre. Now what are these organs ? The little 

 round body in the pin centred specimens is the 

 stitjma, i.e. the summit of the pistil, or seed-producing 

 organ ; the " rose centres " present us with the 

 anthers, or pollen-bearing organs at the summit of 

 the stamens. But if you take a rose centred speci- 

 men and dissect it, you will find the pistil inside, 

 but reduced to about half the length, thus allowing 

 the stamens to tower above it. So if you dissect a 

 pin centre you will find stamens below. Such are 

 the facts to be gleaned by simple observation ; what 

 I have to say now will show what is to be learned 

 by thought and careful scrutiny from these facts. 

 You all know that no seed ever arrives at perfection 



