THE CONNECTIVE AND ANTHER 221 



stand alternately with the five petals. Each bundle 

 we may suppose therefore to be due to the splitting 

 of one stamen. The same thing occurs in HYPERI- 

 CUM the St. John's wort, a bush very common on 

 the higher mountains of South India, while in ERIO- 

 DENDRON each filament is again divided at the top 

 and has three anthers. In several other cases though 

 not in obviously distinct bundles, the stamens are 

 shown by their development to have been derived 

 by the splitting of an original few. This, for instance, 

 is the origin of the two pairs of long stamens in the 

 Stock and Wallflower family (cRUClFER^:). 



7. We may thirik, therefore, of stamens as occurring 

 in four principal ways : 



(1) Numerous and indefinite in number. 



(2) Definite in number, and equal to or double or tre- 

 ble the petals. Free or connected (monadelphous, etc.). 



(3) Fewer in number by the non-development of 

 one or more. 



(4) Very numerous because derived by the splitting 

 of a few, and then separate, or joined together into 

 one or more bundles. 



THE CONNECTIVE AND ANTHER 



8. The anther, as we have seen, contains numerous 

 tiny round grains of pollen, and is attached to the 

 filament connected by a tissue called the connective. 

 In most cases this tissue is barely visible except at 

 the top, but when the two halves of the anther are 

 separated, as sometimes occurs, it is easily made out 

 and in some species of SALVIA (Sage) it may be half 

 an inch long, with the two halves of the anther, at either 



