

124 VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY. 



examination, and observe in particular the sexual trans- 

 formations, we shall always be more struck with this 

 singular similarity of the organs. 



The male parts of plants, or the stamens, may some- 

 times, from causes unknown to us, be changed into 

 female organs or carpels, and bear ovules instead of 

 pollen. In the cases of this kind which have been ob- 

 served, the filaments are found in the natural state, and 

 the anthers are transformed into carpels ; more frequently 

 the stamens, if numerous, remain partly in the male 

 state, and the inner rows only are changed into female 

 organs. Sometimes we find stamens with the anther 

 half filled with ovules and half with pollen. The first 

 observation of this extraordinary metamorphosis was 

 made by Du Petit-Thouars on Sempervivum tectorum, 

 in which this accident appeared frequent, at least in the 

 north of France and in England. My attention having 

 been roused by this beantiful observation, I found a 

 short time after the same metamorphosis in the inner 

 rows of stamens in Magnolia fuscata, and I have since 

 frequently seen the male catkins of different species of 

 Willow, where some of the stamens were transformed 

 into carpels, and most frequently the two stamens of the 

 same flower changed into carpels, formed a fruit re- 

 sembling the ordinary kind. Richard has found a 

 similar transformation in Erica Tetralix ; Mr. Brown 

 in Cheiranthus Cheiri ; Du Petit-Thouars and Defrance 

 in the Poppy ; Guillemin in Euphorbia esula ; Seringe 

 in Cucurbita Pepo ; Rceper in Campanula Rapuncu- 

 loides, &c. 



In some of the last examples which I have mentioned, 

 the phenomenon was presented in a particular manner, 

 in being complicated with a case of union. Thus, Mr. 

 Brown remarked that the stamens of Cheiranthus Cheiri, 

 changed into carpels, were united together around an 



