STAMENS AND PISTILS. 247 



invariably central, or internal, in every simple flower, 

 and would therefore, if drawn out into a monoecious 

 spike, be above the stamens. 



Many curious contrivances of Nature serve to bring 

 the anthers and stigmas together. In Gloriosa, Andr. 

 Repos. t. 129, the style is bent, at a right angle from 

 the very base, for this evident purpose. In Saxifraga, 

 and Parnassla y Engl. Bot. .82, the stamens lean 

 one or two at a time over the stigma, retiring after 

 they have shed their pollen, and giving place to others; 

 which wonderful oeconomy is very striking in the 

 garden Rue, Ruta graveolens, whose stout and firm 

 filaments cannot be disturbed from the posture in which 

 they may happen to be, and evince a spontaneous 

 movement unaffected by external causes. The five 

 filaments of the Cdosia, Cock's-comb, are connected 

 at their lower part by a membranous web, which in 

 moist weather is relaxed, and the stamens spread for 

 shelter under the concave lobes of the corolla. When 

 the air is dry the contraction of the membrane brings 

 them together, to scatter their pollen in the centre of 

 the flower. The elastic filaments of Parietaria, Engl. 

 Bot. t. 879, for a while restrained by the calyx, as 

 those of the lovely Kalmicz, Curt. Mag. t. 175, 177, 

 are by the minute pouches in the corolla, relieve them- 

 selves by an elastic spring, which in both instances 

 serves to dash the pollen with great force upon the 

 stigma. The same end is accomplished by the curved 

 germen of Medicago falcata, Engl. Bot. t. 1016, 



