THEORY VERSUS OBSERVATION. 253 



twisted style. We may now examine more closely the repro- 

 ductive organs. 



The stamens are inserted upon the top of the tube of the 

 corolla, and if you look at the base of their filaments you 

 would be inclined to pronounce it a foliaceous expansion, or, 

 rather, a metamorphic doubling of the corolla. Suppose the 

 stamens to be the result of the transformation of the petals, the 

 filament would be the " claw," and the anther the " limb " of 

 a foliole. At least, theory would tell you so. But observation 

 will show that these are not petals changing into stamens, but, 

 on the contrary, stamens changing into petals ; as is seen in 

 the sterile (or " double ") flowers of many of our ornamental 

 plants, and even of some of our fruit trees. How, then, 

 shall we conciliate theory with observation ? Look, and 

 you shall find. 



Observe the anthers which surmount the filaments. There 

 is something peculiarly characteristic in them. As they open 

 and spread abroad the pollen, they visibly coil themselves up 

 in the form of a spiral. (Fig. 58.) Owing to this twisting, 

 they are found more or less inclined upon their filaments, and 

 are gifted with a considerable mobility. Thoroughly to under- 

 stand the relation between the continuous anther and the fila- 

 ment, we must examine the stamens before their expansion, 

 while they are still folded up within the floral bud, their matrix. 

 The anthers are then quite straight, and, with a magnifying- 

 glass. you can easily see how they are inserted, by the lower 

 part of their back, upon the top of the filament, whose (so- 



