STAMENS. 101 



, however is certain with respect to this fluid, that without detri- 

 ment to the plant, it yields to the industrious bee the material 

 for the manufacture of honey, a luxury highly valued from the 

 most ancient times. Virgil knew that bees made honey from 

 the juices which they gathered from flowers; and we indeed, 

 on this subject, know but little more than he has beautifully ex- 

 pressed in his pastorals. 



Although we are always discovering something new and 

 wonderful in the economy of nature, and in some cases seem 

 permitted to search into the hidden mysteries of her great Au- 

 thor, yet in our researches we are ever made sensible of the 

 limited nature of our own faculties ; and a still, small voice, 

 seems to whisper to man in the proudest triumphs of his rea- 

 son, "Hitherto shalt thougo, but no farther." 







LECTURE XIII. 



Stamens and Pistils. 



ALTHOUGH the calyx and the corolla may be wanting, the sta- 

 mens and pistils are indispensable to the perfection of the fruit. 

 They are in most plants enclosed by the same envelope, or stand 

 upon the same receptacle; in the class Monoecia they are on 

 different flowers which spring from one common root ; and in 

 Dioecia, they are on different flowers, springing from different 

 roots. Yet however distant the stamens and pistils may be, na- 

 ture has provided ways by which the pollen from the staminat6 

 flowers may be conveyed to the pistillate, and there assist in 

 perfecting the seed . That you may the better understand this 

 curious process, and the organs by means of which it is carried 

 on, we will examine each one separately. 



Stamens. 



Stamens are thread-like parts which are exterior with respect 

 to the pistil, interior with regard to the corolla. They exhibit 

 a variety of positions with respect to the pistil. These po- 

 sitions seldom vary in the same family, and they have therefore 

 been taken by the celebrated Jussieu as one of the fundamental 

 distinctions in his classification, called the natural method. If 

 the stamens are inserted upon the pistil, as in umbelliferous 

 plants, they are said to be epigynous (from epi upon, and gynia 

 pistil) ; if the stamens are inserted under the germ, as in cruci- 

 form plants, they are laid to be hypogynous (from hypo under, 

 nnd gynia pistil) ; when the stamens are inserted upon the calyx, 



Reflections Stamens and pistils necessary -Definitions of the stamen 

 Positions with jespeet to the pistil. 



9* 



