8S9 



STALACTITE. 



STAPELIA. 



890 



or 60 dollars, the pecul of about 133 Ibs., but in many of the provinces 

 of China for 200 or 300 dollars. 



The varnish is prepared for use by boiling it with an equal weight 

 of the oil of Tang-yhu, which is a Chinese tree allied to the Mimv,- 

 sops EUngi, from whose fruit an oil is prepared. The proportions 

 are varied according to the purposes for which the varnish is required. 

 Sometimes dry pigments are added for the sake of red or other 

 colours. The Japanese are the most skilful in preparing and orna- 

 menting all kinds of work with this varnish, and their black lacquered 

 works are conveyed to all parts of the world. 



(Jack, Malayan Miscellany, No. 3, reprinted by Sir \V. Hooker.) 



STALACTITE and STALAGMITE. Stalactitio Carbonate of 

 Lime occurs chiefly in long masses suspended from the roofs of 

 caverns in limestone rocks. Stalactites appear to be continually form- 

 ing ; water containing carbonate of lime held in solution by carbonic 

 acid, trickling through crevices in the roofs of the caverns, gradually 

 during its exposure to the air loses its carbonic acid, and consequently 

 deposits its carbonate of lime ; the water passing over the portion 

 first deposited gradually adds to it, and eventually gives the carbonate 

 of lime its great length and stalactitic character. The natter deposits, 

 called stalagmites, are formed on the floor of the cavern by the water 

 there depositing that portion of its carbonate of lime which is not 

 separated during the formation of the stalactite. Stalactitic Carbon- 

 ate of Lime is met with in the veins of lead-ore in Durham and 

 Northumberland. Caverns are sometimes nearly filled with these 

 deposits, which in some cases are of very large dimensions. The most 

 remarkable instances of their occurrence in Britain are in the cavern at 

 Castleton in Derbyshire, and Macallaster Cave in the Isle of Skye. 

 The grotto of Autiparos in the Archipelago, the Woodman's Cave in 

 the Harz in Germany, and that of Auxelle in France, are striking 

 instances of their formation in other countries. 



Besides the occurrence of this variety of carbonate of lime in the 

 stalactitio form, it is sometimes met with reniform and tabular, and 

 in other imitative shapes. The fracture ia sometimes perfectly lamel- 

 lar, occasionally fibrous, the fibres diverging from a centre, with a 

 pearly or silky lustre, and sometimes resinous or waxy. The colour 

 varies from white to grayish, brown, red, and yellowish-white. Opaque, 

 but frequently translucent. 



The Oriental Alabaster, much employed by the ancients in statuary 

 and the formation of vases, appears to be of stalactitic origin. 



STALAGMITES (from tr-ra\ayn6s, a dropping), the name of a genus 

 of Plants belonging to the natural order Cluriacece, or QiMiferce. It 

 nag polygamous or bisexual flowers ; 4-5 sepals, which are persistent 

 and bractless ; 5 petals alternating with the sepals ; 4-5 united sta- 

 mens, the bundles flat, elongated, and divided at the apex into several 

 short antheriferous portions opposite to the petals, and alternating 

 with 5 large truncated glands; the anthers are 2-celled, bursting 

 longitudinally ; the ovary is 3-5-celled, with 1 ovulo in each cell ; 

 stigma 3-5-lobed ; the fruit a berry. The species are trees natives of 

 the East Indies and Ceylon, and belong to the family which produces 

 the gamboge of commerce. Dr. Wight states that one of the species, 

 the S. ovifolia, which is a native of Ceylon, yields a true gamboge, 

 which is employed in commerce. It is known by its oval shining 

 leaves, its lateral fascicled flowers, male and hermaphrodite mixed. 

 Its anthers are arranged in 6 or 8 bundles, and it possesses a 3-celled 

 1-3-seeded ovary. 



STAMENS, in Botany, the organs which constitute the last whorl 

 but one of the series which form the flower in plants, the pistil with 

 its parts forming the last or innermost whorl. These organs were 

 called by the older botanists Apices, and by English writers Chives. 

 They constitute the male organs of the flower, and are formed prin- 

 cipally of cellular tissue. They are composed in most cases of three 

 parts : 1, the Filament, a long slender organ, on the summit of which 

 is placed 2, the Anther, which is a little case, mostly double, con- 

 taining 3, the Pollen, which is composed of little grains constituting 

 the fructifying influence of the plant. 



The Stamen, in theoretical Botany, is considered, as well as the 

 other parts of the flower, a modification of the leaf. Although its 

 form, structure, and functions differ so much from the leaf, it is not 

 difficult to point out the series of modifications by which the one is con- 

 verted into the other. In many plants the leaves cannot be distin- 

 guished near the flowers from the bracts, and these again cannot be 

 distinguished from the sepal* forming the calyx ; whilst the calyx 

 often insensibly passes into the corolla, and parts of flowers are often 

 seen possessing both the characters of sepals and petals. In the case 

 of the White Water-Lily, a good example is offered of the passage of 

 petals into stamens, thus completing the series of changes from leaves 

 to stamens. In this plant a gradual contraction of the inner petals 

 is neen to take place at their upper parts, the cellular tissue becomes 

 coloured, and partakes of the character of pollen-grains, and these 

 changes become more and more decided till the whorl of stamens is 

 fully established in the centre of the plant. Many other plants might 

 1> ! cited as affording examples of the same changes, as Calycanthua, 

 Illicium, &c. These changes occur naturally in tbe above plants, but 

 a more decided exemplification of the conversion of these organs will 

 be found in what are called monstrous or double flowers, which are 

 the result of cultivation. If, for instance, a garden rose is taken, it 

 will be found that the natural position of tbe stamens in this flower 



is occupied by petals, and in many the character of half-stamen and 

 half petal may be clearly seen. In other double flowers the same 

 backward change may be observed of petals into sepals, and so on. 



In the change that has thus taken place of the leaf into the stamen , 

 the filament of the latter represents the midrib of the former, whilst 

 the anther and its pollen are modifications of the lamina and cellular 

 tissue of the leaf. It is well known that the cellular tissue of the 

 upper and under surface of the leaf differs very considerably, and it is 

 to these parts that the anterior and posterior cells of the anther are 

 analogous. On this point Schleiden has proposed the questions as to 

 whether there is any corresponding difference in the character of the 

 pollen in the anterior and posterior cells ; whether they possess the 

 power of fructifying ; and whether in dioecious plants it might not 

 be ascertained that the one produced pollen grains that would 

 engender male embryoes, and the other grains that would produce 

 female embryoea. 



In their normal position in the flower the first row of stamens are 

 always alternate with the petals ; and as these organs are alternate 

 with the sepals, the stamens are opposite the latter. If there is a 

 second row of stamens, they will be alternate with the first, and thus 

 of course opposite the petals. It however frequently happens, as in 

 the primrose, that there is only one row of stamens, and yet opposite 

 the petals. In such cases the anomaly is accounted for by supposing 

 that the first row has not been developed, and consequently the second 

 stand in their original position, that is, alternate with the aborted 

 row. When there are only five petals and ten stamens, as in Silene, 

 the latter are supposed to form a double row. 



The stamens are said to arise from various parts of the flower, and 

 according to the part of the flower from which they arise terms have 

 been applied to express this origin, which are of great importance in 

 systematic botany. When the stamens arise from (or, as it is often 

 expressed, are inserted into) the calyx or corolla, they are said to be 

 Perigynous ; when they arise from under the pistil or ovary, Hypo- 

 gynous ; when from the pistil itself, Epigynous. The classes and sub- 

 classes of the natural system of Jussieu are subdivided according to 

 the existence of these distinctions in the families of plants. The 

 above terms however must not be supposed to express the fact that 

 the stamens do really originate in the parts from which they are said 

 to arise or are inserted into. The fact is, the stamens always arise 

 from a point in the axis of the flower between the petals and ovary ; 

 and when attached to these or other parts, it must only be looked 

 upon as an adhesion of one organ to another. Thus when it is eaid 

 that the stamens are inserted into the calyx of the flower of the 

 apple, it is meant that they adhere to the calyx up to a certain point, 

 from whence they appear to rise. The same must be said of their 

 connection with other parts. 



The Filament of the stamen is the representative of the petiole or 

 midrib of the leaf, and in structure aud function resembles that 

 organ, and is not any more essential to the existence of the stamen 

 than the petiole is to the leaf. It is composed of very delicate 

 cellular and woody tissue, with which are intermixed a few bundles 

 of spiral vessels. It is mostly filiform and cylindrical in shape, and 

 in most instances without colour. In some plants, aa the Canna, end 

 in the whole of Zingiberacece, the filaments are hardly distinguishable 

 from petals except in the possession of anthers at their apex. 



The filaments are often combined into a single mass, the anthers 

 being separate ; when this is the case, they are said to form a brother- 

 hood, and the term Adelphia is applied to them. When there is 

 only one such combination, the stamens are said to be Monadelphous, 

 as in Geranium ; when there are two such unions, or even if only 

 one stamen is separated from the rest, they are called Diadelphous, 

 as in Funtaria, Vicia, Lathyrus, &c. ; when there are more than two, 

 as in ffypericwn and Mdaleuca, they are Polyadelphous. The fila- 

 ments are sometimes of different lengths ; when two are tall and two 

 are short, as is seen in the whole of the natural family Lamiaceas, 

 they are called Didynamous ; if four are long and two are short, as 

 is seen in the family of Cruciferce, they are Tetradynamous. 



The number of stamens in flowers is expresseil by a Greek numeral 

 being prefixed to the word audrous : thus Aoweri with one stamen 

 are Monandrous ; with two stamens, Diandrous ; with three stamens, 

 Triandrous, and so on. 



It was on the number of stamens, and their arrangement and 

 relations, that Linnseus founded the classes of his celebrated sexual 

 or artificial system of the arrangement of plants. [SYSTEM, SEXUAL.] 



For the function of the stamens, see EEPRODUOTION IN PLANTS AND 

 ANIMALS. 



STAPE'LIA, the name of an extensive and curious genus of 

 African Plants, given to it by Linneeus in honour of John Bodseus a 

 Stapel. This genus belongs to the natural order Asclepiadacece, and 

 possesses the following characters : Corolla rotate, 5-cleft, fleshy, 

 in the inside of which is a double nectary, consisting of two rows of 

 leaves; the inner leaves, of which there are five, are subulate; the 

 outer leaves are broader and undivided ; the anthers are simple at 

 top ; the pollen masses are fixed by their buse, having one of their 

 edges cartilaginous and pellucid; follicles two, smooth; seeds numerous, 

 cotnose. Most of the species of this genus are natives of the Cape 

 of Good Hope. They are succulent plants without leaves, frequently 

 covered over with dark tubercles, giving them a very grotesque 



