378 ACCOUNT OF A NEW GENUS OF PLANTS, 



most sinoiilar modification of stamen that has yet been 

 observed. 



It appears to me of importance to inquire into the real 

 relation which so remarkable a structnre bears to the more 

 ordinary states of Anthera. 



211] A "satisfactory determination of this point, while it 

 vronld certainly assist in explaining the nature of the other 

 parts of the column, might also in some degree lead to 

 correct notions of the affinities of the genus ; and the ques- 

 tion is perhaps sufficiently interesting, even independent of 

 these results. 



In this inqniry, it is necessary in the first place to take 

 a general view of the principal forms of Antherse in phaeno- 

 gamous plants ; all of which, however different they 

 may appear, I consider as modifications of one common 

 structure. 



In this assumed regular structnre or type of Anthera, I 

 suppose it to consist of two parallel folliculi or t/wc(^, fixed 

 by their whole length to the margins of a compressed 

 filament : each theca being originally filled with a pulpy 

 substance, on the surface or in the cells of Avhich the pollen 

 is produced ; and having its cavity divided longitudinally 

 into two equal cells, the subdivision being indicated exter- 

 nally by a depression or furrow, whicli is also the line of 

 dehiscence.-^ 



1 A certain degree of resemblance between this supposed regular state of 

 Antliera, and that which in a former essay (on Composilse, Li^in. Soc. Transact. 

 xii, ;?. 89) I have considered as the type of Pistillum in phssnogamous plants, 

 will probably be admitted; and both structures have, as it appears to me, an 

 evident relation to the Leaf, from whose modifications all the parts of the 

 flower seem to be formed. 



This liypothesis of the formation of the flower may be considered as having 

 originated with Linuteus in his Prolepsls Flantarum, though he has not very 

 clearly stated it, and has also connected it with other speculations, which have 

 since been generally abandoned. It is, however, more distinctly proposed by 

 Professor Link {in P/tilos. Bot. Prodr. p. 141), and very recently has been 

 again brought forward, with some modifications, by M. Aubcrt du Petit 

 Thenars. 



In adopting the hypothesis as stated by Professor Link, I shall, ^yithout 

 entering at present into its explanation or defence, offer two observations in 

 illustraFion of it, founded on considerations that have not been before ad- 

 verted to. 



My first observation is, that the principal point in which the antherre and 



