466 



ANGIOSPERMAEDICO TYLEDONES 





erect and curved inwards. Andromonoecious or androdioecious ; hermaphrodite 

 flowers protandrous. 



1092. A. major L. (Herm. Muller, 'Fertilisation,' pp. 272-3; ' Alpenblumen,' 

 p. 116; Knuth, 'Bliitenbiol. Herbstbeob.'; Schulz, 'Beitrage,' II, p. 90; Kerner, 

 Nat. Hist. PI.,' Eng. Ed. 1, II, pp. 323-4 ; Ricca, Atti Soc. ital. sc. nat., Milano, xiv, 

 1871; Warnstorf, Verh. bot. Ver., Berlin, xxxviii, 1896.) Hermann Muller states 

 that the white or reddish flowers of this species are not in a continuous plane, as in 

 most Umbelliferae, but conspicuousness of the inflorescences is increased by the 

 broad whitish involucral bracts. Besides protandrous hermaphrodite flowers, each 

 umbel includes numerous marginal and central male ones, and as these usually 

 mature late, they serve to pollinate the last developed stigmas of the hermaphrodite 

 flowers. 



Fig. 157. Aslrantia major, L. (after Herm. Mailer), (i) Male flower at the beginning of anthesis; 

 one stamen is erect, bat its anther is still unripe ; the four other stamens are still bent down within the flower. 

 (a) Male flower, with erect stamens, the anthers of two have dehisced. (3) Hermaphrodite flower at the 

 beginning of anthesis ; two stamens are erect, but their anthers have net dehisced ; the others are still bent 

 down within the flower. The styles project from the flower, but their stigmas are immature. (4) Her- 

 maphrodite flower in the second (female) stage; the stamens have all fallen off; the styles have elongated 

 and their stigmas are mature, a, stamen bent down within the flower; a', erect stamen; a", stamen 

 with dehisced anther; ov, ovary; p, petal; s, sepal; si, immature stigma; s/', mature stigma. 



The male flowers are distributed andromonoeciously or androdioecioi 

 Schulz says that the male flowers always exceed the hermaphrodite ones 

 number. Purely female inflorescences are rare. According to Schulz, protanc 

 is so well marked that the stigmas do not become receptive till after the anthers 

 have dehisced. Kerner describes the hermaphrodite flowers as being protogynous, 

 and, like those of Sanicula europaea, geitonogamously fertilized by the pollen of 

 adjacent male ones. 



Warnstorf says that primary umbels include both hermaphrodite and male 

 flowers; while secondary ones either contain a few hermaphrodite flowers and 

 numerous male ones, or else the latter only, purely male umbels being the last 



