STRUCTURE.] FILAMENT. 341 



mass is said to be a fraternity, brotherhood or adelphia : if 

 there is one combination, as in Malva, they are monadelphous 

 {fig. 114.); if two, as in Fumaria or Pisum, diadelphous ; if 

 three, as in some Hypericums, triadelphous ; if several, as in 

 Melaleuca, polyadelphous (fig. 112.). The tube formed by 

 the union of the filaments in a monadelphous combination is 

 called, by Mirbel, androphorum. 



If the stamens are longer than the corolla they are exserted; 

 if shorter, they are called included : when they all bend to 

 one side, as in Amaryllis, they are declinate ; if two out of 

 four are shorter, they are didynamous ; if four out of six are 

 longest, they are tetradynamous. 



The number of stamens is indicated by a Greek numeral 

 prefixed to the word androus, which signifies male, thus : 



One stamen is Monandrous. 



Two Diandrous. 



Three Triandrous. 



Four Tetrandrous. 



Five Pentandrous. 



Six Hexandrous. 



Seven - Heptandrous. 



Eight Octandrous. 



Nine Enneandrous. 



Ten Decandrous. 

 Eleven or twelve stamens, Dodecandrous. 



Twelve to twenty Icosandrous. 



Above twenty Poly androus or Indefinite. 



The filament (Plate III.) (capillamentum, or pediculus, of 

 some) is the part that supports the anther. It consists of a 

 bundle of delicate woody tissue and spiral vessels, surrounded 

 by cellular tissue, and is in all respects the same as the petiole 

 of a leaf, of which it is a modification, except that its parts 

 are more delicate. As the petiole is unessential to the leaf, 

 so is the filament to the anther, it being frequently absent, 

 or at least so strictly united to the sides of the calyx or corolla 

 as to be undistinguishable. Its most common figure is filiform 

 or cylindrical (Plate III. fig. 12, 13. 20, 21.), and it is almost 



