] 4 M. Morren on the Spiir-shaped Nectaries 



are the same. They are stars, with diverging rays, to the 

 number of eight or ten, which, seen from above, resemble the 

 actinenchyme of Hayne. The junction of the radiating fibres 

 takes place on a large plate (fig. 22, b). 



What becomes of this inenchymatous tissue in the meta- 

 morphosis of the anther into a spur ? Does it continue with 

 its form, as in the Reseda, or does it disappear, as in the P(e- 

 onia ? With respect to this, observation shows, that the fibri- 

 ferous cells lose their fibres at the same time that they change 

 their form : from having been sph^renchyme this tissue be- 

 comes pinenchyme (fig. 22, A and B); and whilst the cell, 

 from being spherical as it had been, becomes tubuliform, the 

 fibre is resolved and disappears ; its colour changes from yel- 

 low to blue, and instead of a star, only a blue liquid is seen 

 there, without granules. I did not observe that the cytoblast, 

 although my attention was especially fixed upon it, acted the 

 least part in this histological metamorphosis. 



When the spur is formed, the nectar-bearing gland appears 

 like a mass of rounded cells (fig. 23 b), smaller and rounder 

 than those of the derm (fig. 23 a). 



The vascular system of the connective, on the contrary, per- 

 forms an important part in this succession of changes of form, 

 structure and function. Restricted at first, constituted by 

 few fibres, in which we see fine tracheae, hard to be unrolled, 

 and pleurenchyme, this system soon divaricates its anasto- 

 moses, and fibres may be perceived in various directions, which, 

 united, form an apparatus much larger than the primitive 

 state. 



It is evident from these researches, that the metamorphosis 

 of the anther into a spur, that the change of the pollen-bearing 

 apparatus into the nectar-bearing apparatus, attack the deep- 

 est tissues, and that if a morphological metamorphosis takes 

 place, an histological metamorphosis takes place also. If the 

 functions change, there is, as we see, a phaenomenal transla- 

 tion of this change by that which exists most intimately in 

 the organization — the tissular constitution. Cases of meta- 

 morphosis, indeed, only become interesting to the physiolo- 

 gist, when he comes to know what at the same time is pass- 

 ing in the tissues. We may therefore say here, that if, in the 

 Columbine, the connective forms the nectar-hearing spur, this 

 change leads to the metamorphosis of the inenchyme of the 

 anther-cells into parenchyme, and that the metamorphosis at- 

 tacks in as great a degree the entire organism as the tissues 

 which compose it. 



We have novv- to add a few words relative to the varieties of 

 Aquilegia called stellated. DeCandolle attributes the peta- 



