64 VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY. 



thus, there are some stamens whose filaments only 

 cohere at the base — for example, several Pinks ; others 

 where they do so as far as the middle, as the two 

 stamens of Salix incana ; others, where the union 

 proceeds very nearly to the top, as in most Meliaceae, 

 some Malvaceae, &c. We also find some free at their 

 bases at the time of flowering, and united at the top, as 

 in Lobelia. In this respect we find as many differences 

 among stamens cohering together, as in petals united 

 into a gamopetalous corolla. 



The cohesion of the filaments may take place in a 

 uniform manner among all the stamens, whether they 

 be in a single row, as in most Amaranthaceas and 

 Meliaceae, or in several united by their bases, as in 

 Malvaceae. 



Sometimes the stamens are distributed regularly in 

 parcels united at the base, and equal in number to the 

 petals or carpels ; thus, in Hypericum and Melaleuca 

 there are five parcels alternate with the petals, and each 

 composed of a nearly definite number of stamens. Some- 

 times, the stamens being almost in a single row, and 

 double the number of the petals, as in the Papilionaceae, 

 their filaments are all united, either all together, in a 

 cylindrical sheath, as in Cytisus — or nine together, in a 

 split sheath, on the upper side, and the tenth remaining 

 free, as in Colutea — or five on one side and five on the 

 other, forming two semi-sheaths, as in JEschinomene — 

 or in two lateral parcels, and a single one free, as in 

 several kinds of Dalbergia. Of other cohesions, the 

 most singular are observed in some other families : thus, 

 in several Cruciferae, such as CEthionema and Sterigma, 

 of the six stamens, the two lateral are always free, and 

 the four others united by the filaments, either partially 

 or wholly. It must be remarked, that in the genera 

 which present this disposition, when these filaments 



