SUPPRESSION OR ABORTION. 



269 



appears as an inner series. In the same way we incline to 

 explain the opposition of the stamens 

 to the petals in the Grape-vine also 

 (Fig. 334 - 336) ; inasmuch as the 

 five glands (represented by the small 

 shaded figures in the diagram, Fig. 

 336) which alternate with the petals 

 clearly belong to a circle within the 

 actual stamens, while there are no 

 vestiges outside of them. The 

 glands, therefore, would seem to rep- 

 resent the proper stamineal circle, in 

 an undeveloped state, reduced to 

 these rudiments or to a lobed disk. 



479. The stamens of the Barberry 

 (Ord. Berberidaceae) are in appear- 

 ance only, but not really, opposed to the petals, and the petals 

 to the sepals. Here the appearance is caused, not by the sup- 

 pression, but by the symmetrical augmentation of the floral 

 envelopes and of the stamens. The calyx consists of two alter- 

 nating circles of sepals, three in each ; the corolla of two circles 

 of petals, three in each ; the three exterior petals alternating as 

 they should with the inner circle of sepals, and the three interior 

 ones alternating with these. But when the flower opens, the six 

 petals, spreading apparently as one whorl, are necessarily opposed 

 to the six sepals ; and the six stamens in two circles, which are 

 still more confluent into one whorl, are equally opposed to these, 

 taken six and six ; but they really alternate in circles of threes. 

 In other words, decussating verticils of threes necessarily form six 

 vertical ranks (251, 441). It is just the same in the Lily, Crocus, 

 and most Monocotyledonous plants ; where the perianth is com- 

 posed of six leaves in two circles, and the androecium of six sta- 

 mens in two circles, giving a regular alternation in threes ; al- 

 though, taken as two 6-merous circles, we have a stamen before 

 each leaf of the perianth. 



480. The symmetry of the flower is more frequently and seri- 

 ously obscured by the suppression of a part of the members of the 



FIG. 334. Flower of the Grape, casting its petals without expanding them. 335. The same, 

 without the petals : both show the glands distinctly, within the stamens. 336. Diagram of the 

 flower. 



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