30 ANTHOLOGY: THE GENERAL NATURE OF THE FLOWER 



Fig. 14. Diagram representing 

 transverse section through anther, 

 o, theca, containing pollen; 6, con- 

 nective; c, locellus. 15, alder twig. 

 o, pistillate-flowered branches; b, 

 staminate-flowered branches. 



The Staminate or Male Flower. — Before considering the structure of 

 the pistil we will examine a "JNIale Flower," borne, in the case of the 

 willow, upon a plant which produces no pistillate flowers. Fig. 11 

 illustrates branches (a) crowded with male 

 flowers each (Fig. 12, a), as before, in 

 the axil of a scal^ (6). In this case the 

 two modified leaves forming the flower are 

 entirely separate and the hollow portion of 

 each {d) is small, borne at the summit 

 of a stem (c) and filled (Fig. 14) with a 

 great number of minute rounded bodies. 

 These correspond, though of the other sex, 

 to the macrospores which we have found 

 the pistillate flower to produce, and they 

 are called IMicrospores — in flowering plants, 

 Pollen-grains, They possess the power of 

 germinating, growing, and producing Male 

 Cells, comparable to the spermatozoa of 

 animals, and requisite for the fertilization of the corresponding egg- 

 element produced by the macrospores. 



The Androecium is Composed of one or more Stamens. — The male por- 

 tion of a flower is called the Androecium, frequently indicated by the 

 symbol A, and it consists of one or more Stamens, in this case of two. 

 As this flower consists only of androecium, it is known as a Staminate 

 Flower, indicated by the symbol d. 



The Sporophyte, Sporophyll, and Sporangium. — We have now seen that 

 both the stamen and the pistil, homologues of leaves, exist for the 

 production of spores. A modified leaf producing spores is called a 

 Sporophyll. Both the stamen and the pistil form hollow bodies for 

 containing one or more spores. Such a spore-case is called a Sporangium 

 or Sporange. A plant producing sporophylls and sporanges is called a 

 Sporophyte. JMacrosporophytes, Macrosporophylls and Macrospor- 

 anges are those producing only macrospores or female spores. Micro- 

 sporophytes, Microsporophylls, and INIicrosporanges are those producing 

 only microspores or male spores. 



Dioecious, Monoecious and Polygamous Flowers. — When, as in this 

 case, the macrospores are produced })y one plant and the microspores 

 by another, the plant is dioecious. If in addition each plant produced 

 some perfect flowers it would be Dioeciously Polygamous. If, as in the 

 Alder (Fig. 15) pistillate flowers (a) and staminate flowers (b), or other- 



