122 MORPHOLOGY, OE COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 



At other times the connective expands transversely, so that the lobes 

 become more or less separated j in such cases it may be ovate, orbicular, &c. 

 (Melissa, the Lime-tree, &c.). This is especially the case with the lower 

 part ; and examples may be found illustrating this point, forming a series 

 from the state where the bases of the lobes are but slightly separated, to 

 that in which they are inclined together at the summit at an angle of 

 45 ( Vitex) ; or, further, the bases are carried out and up till they are 

 horizontal, as in Stachys, Prunella, &c. ; while in other instances this 

 goes so far that the connective grows out into two distinct arms from the 

 summit of the filament, bearing the solitary anther-cells at the tips : in 

 Salvia (fig 227) one of the lobes is abortive, and represented by a petaloid 

 plate. 



Fig. 227. 

 Fig. 228. o. Fig. 229. 



Pig. 227. Stamen of Salvia qffldnalis, with a half-anther containing pollen and the other half 

 barren, separated by the bifurcation of the connective from the summit of the 

 filament. 



Fig. 228. Group of stamens with sinuate anthers, of the male flower of a Gourd. 



Pig. 229. Stamen of Vaccinium uliginosum, with spur-like appendage and porous anthers. 



Anther-lobes. The lobes of the anther are commonly oblong ; 

 in the Grasses they are linear ; but they vary with the form of 

 the connective, and are sometimes lunate or reniform. In the 

 Cucurbitaceae they are remarkably convoluted (sinuate) into a flat 

 scroll-like form (tig. 228). Not unfrequently they are attenuated 

 upwards into free points, as in Vaccinium (fig. 229) ; in the Me- 

 lastomaceae the two lobes become confluent into a tubular process 

 at the summit ; while appendages are occasionally met with at the 

 base of the lobes, as in Erica (lig. 230), &c. 



Anther-loculi. The lobes of most anthers exhibit internally 

 four cells (thecce or loculi) in the early stages of development, each lobe 

 being divided into two by the septum extending from the connec- 

 tive to the suture (fig. 231). The septum (the placentoid of Chatin) 

 is more or less destroyed during the maturation of the pollen in 



