108 ORGANS AND FUNCTIONS OF PLANTS. 



ORGANS OF REPRODUCTION. 



IT was first hinted by Grew, from information 

 given him by Millington, and established afterwards 

 by John Ray in England, and by Camerarius and 

 Robart on the continent, that plants have reproductive 

 organs, by which similar changes are effected in their 

 seeds, as are produced in the eggs of insects and birds* 

 by the pairing of males and females. It was upon 

 this principle that Linnaeus founded his celebrated 

 system. 



I have already briefly noticed these organs, as 

 making part of the flower, under the head of members : 

 the males being termed the stamens, each consisting 

 of a filament and an anther ; the female being termed 

 the pistil, consisting of a style and summit above, with 

 a seed organ at its base. The use of the flower- 

 scales, the flower-cup, and the blossom have not been 

 ascertained. 



The Anthers and Pollen. 



The essential part of a stamen is the anther, usually 

 formed of two small lobes or sacs, with a partition l > 

 having of course two chambers or cells 2 , but some- 

 times one, sometimes four, rarely more, each anther 

 being often detached and free^* in other cases all the 

 anthers of a flower may cohere by their margins, as 

 in the thistle and the daisy. In the laurel, each of the 



(1) In Latin, Connectivum. (2) In Latin, Loculamenta. 



