STRUCTURE OF FLOWERS. 97 



3d. In the place where, in the usual course of vege- 

 tation, there arises a single organ, we sometimes see a 

 cluster of analogous ones developed. Thus, each of the 

 stamens in certain monstrosities of the Primrose, instead 

 of being changed into a single petal, is transformed into 

 a cluster united at the base. It seems that this fact is 

 analogous to what is constantly found in certain flowers 

 in which we see a cluster of organs united where, from 

 analogy, we ought to find but one : such are the bundles 

 of stamens alternate with the petals in Melaleuca and 

 several species of Hypericum. 



4th. A fact analogous to the preceding appears to take 

 place in certain cases, with this difference, that the mul- 

 tiplied organs which, from symmetry, appear to replace 

 a single one, are completely free at their base ; thus, in 

 Lagerstromia, we count five large stamens alternate 

 with the petals, and four or five small ones which, situ- 

 ated opposite each petal, seem to represent by their 

 union a single stamen. This fact, combined with the 

 abortion of the large stamens, seems to render intelligible 

 the structure of several By ttneriacese. This class appears 

 to be connected with the preceding by the example of 

 the Cruciferae, where the two pair of large stamens, some- 

 times free, sometimes more or less united, seem, from 

 symmetry, to replace a single stamen. 



5th. Lastly, it sometimes happens that the two parts 

 of an organ are so separated at their base as to appear 

 to form two distinct ones. Thus, Impatiens Noli-tangere 

 has four petals and five stamens — three alternate with 

 the petals, and two springing side by side at the point 

 where the fourth ought to arise in the regular state. 

 For, the three solitary stamens between the petals have 

 two-celled anthers, and those in a pair have them uni- 

 locular, and seem consequently to be a stamen divided 

 into two. The term of doubling applies very well to 



VOL. II. H 



