164 COMPOUND ORGANS OF PLANTS. 



style of the pistil is considerably elongated, and its lubricated 

 and viscid stigma is brought below the anthers ready to receive 

 the falling pollen. In upright flowers we have a reverse 

 arrangement of the parts; for the style of the pistil is in a 

 great measure suppressed, and the filaments of the stamens 

 are so developed as to place the anthers above the stigmatic 

 surface. 



In many plants fecundation is effected by certain special 

 movements of the male or female organs of the flower. The 

 flowers of the mountain laurel (Kalmia) are, in this respect, 

 especially deserving of examination. The corollas of the 

 Kalmia are rotate or wheel -shaped, and have ten stamens. 

 The anthers of these stamens, before the flowers expand, are 

 contained in ten little cavities or depressions in the side of 

 each corolla, where they are secured by a viscid secretion ; ' 

 when the corollas open, the filaments are bent back by the 

 confinement of their anthers, like so many springs, in which 

 condition they remain until the pollen in the anther-cells 

 becomes ripe, and absorbs the secretion. The anthers becom- 

 ing suddenly liberated by this means from their confinement, 

 fly up from their cavities with such force as to eject their 

 pollen on the stigma of the pistil. The slightest touch with 

 the point of a needle, or the feet of an insect crawling over 

 their reflexed filaments, will produce the same effects, if the 

 pollen is mature. 



In the same manner, the stamens of the common barberry 

 spring to the pistil if the lower part of their filaments is 

 touched, and ^seldom fail in making the movement to throw a 

 quantity of pollen on its stigma. The stamens of the Hue, of 

 some of the Saxifrages, and of Parnassia palustris, a rare and 

 beautiful snow-white swamp flower, do this in succession, first 



