CHAPTER XX 



THE STAMENS 



1. Next inside the petals (or corolla) there stand 

 in nearly all flowers one or more circles of stamens. 

 The normal and complete stamen consists, as we have 

 already learnt, of a sort of double box, the anther 

 supported on a long or short filament, the tissue join- 

 ing the two halves of the anther and connecting them 

 with the filament being called the connective. 



2. Now we find among plants very considerable dif- 

 ferences in their number and character, and in the 

 exact positions they take up in the flower, though they 

 are always inside the petals, and outside the ovary 

 greater differences indeed than in the case of the 

 sepals or petals. 



But if we examine a number of flowers on the 

 same plant, or on different plants of the same kind, 

 we shall find the stamens (just as we did the petals), 

 alike in all, so that their nature is of some impor- 

 tance in aiding one in the determination of the species 

 to which a plant belongs. Not only is so, but the 

 general nature of the stamens is usually the same for 

 all the species of a genus. 



