CHAP, II. STAMENS. 147 



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. 



The Jilament (Plate III.) {copillameritum, or pediculus, of 

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

 bundle of delicate woody tissue and spiral \"essels, 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 caljoc 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 

 always destitute of colour; but there are exceptions to both 

 these chai'acters. In Fuchsia, for instance, the filaments are 

 red like the petals ; in Adamia they are blue ; in CEnothera 

 they are yellow ; and a return to the foliaceous state of which 

 they usually are a distinct modification is by no means rare. 

 (Plate IV. fig. 6. 8.) Thus the filament in Canna is undis- 

 tinguishable from petals except by its having an anther; 

 in the same genus and its allies, and in all Scitamineae, the 

 inner series of what seem to be petals are modifications of 

 filaments (see Introduction to the Nat. Syst. p. 265.) : and this 

 is a very common circumstance in sterile stamens. 



L 2 



