ANGIOSPERMS. 



47, 



them (Fig. 328 Z)) as a point, or in the form of a long appendage as in the ole- 

 ander. If the upper part of the stalk, the connective, is broad, the two anther- 

 lobes are distinctly separated (Figs. 328, 331) ; if it is narrow, they lie close to one 

 another. The articulation of the stalk is very commonly the result of the con- 

 nective being sharply separated from the filament by a deep constriction; the 

 connection of the two is then maintained by so thin a piece that the anther, together 

 with the connective which unites the anther-lobes, swings very lightly as a whole on 

 the filament (versatile anther). The point of connection may be at the lower end, at 

 the centre (Fig. 332), or at the upper part of the connective; sometimes the detached 

 connective attains a considerable size, and forms appendages beyond the anther 

 (Fig. 333, /i, x), or it is developed between the two lobes like a cross-bar, so that 

 the filament and connective form a T, as in the lime, and to a much greater extent 

 in Salvia, where the transversely extended connective bears an anther-lobe on one 

 arm only, while the other is sterile and is adapted for a different' purpose. Whether 

 the anther-lobes are parallel depends on the mode of their connection with the 



Fig. 331. — Stamen of .]/a/ioi!i\i .li/tn- 

 folium ; B with the anther open (by re- 

 curved valves). 



Fic;. 332.— Stamen ol Arbutus hybrida, 

 anllier open (by pores) ; x appendajje. 



Fig. 333. — Stamens of Centradettia 

 rosea ; A a larijer fertile one. B a smaller 

 sterile one of the same flower. 



connective ; if they are so, they are usually attached to the connective for their 

 whole length ; or in other cases they are separated above, or free below and 

 coherent above, in which case they may become placed at such a distance from one 

 another that the two lobes lie in one line above the apex of the filament, as in many 

 Labiates. Not unfrequently the filament also has appendages ; as, for example, the 

 membranous expansions or appendages right and left below in Allium which 

 resemble stipules, or a hood-shaped outgrowth behind as in Asclepiadeae, or ligular 

 structures in front as in Aljsstnn viontaniun, or conical prolongations beneath on 

 one side as in Crambe, or on both as in Mahonia (Fig. 331 x). 



A phenomenon of great importance from a morphological point of view is the 

 branching of stamens which occurs in many Dicotyledons, a peculiarity of structure 

 which was erroneously confounded by the older botanists with their cohesion, 

 although the two are fundamentally distinct. Sometimes the branching of stamens 

 takes place, like that of foliage-leaves, bilaterally in one plane, right and left of the 

 median line, so that the branched stamen has a pinnate appearance, as in Calo- 

 thamnus (Fig. 334 st\ where each division bears an anther. In other cases the 

 branching takes place in a kind of polytomy, as in Ricinus (Fig. 335), where the 

 separate stamens arise in the form of simple protuberances from the receptacle, each 



