74 ON VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



sac or bag, situated most frequently, (though not 

 uniformly) at the base of each petal, from which 

 the honey is secreted that is supposed to be the 

 source of nourishment to the internal parts of the 

 flower. When the nectarium is wanting, nature 

 has given greater activity to the other nutritive or- 

 gans ; and when in the place of honey, a strong poi- 

 sonous fluid is secreted, (as is sometimes the case) 

 it is intended to keep off and destroy insects in 

 those flowers which are particularly liable to their 

 attacks. 



Having described the contributive, secondary, 

 or auxiliary parts of fructification, we come now 

 to the essential ; and the % se, as we have previously 

 stated, are the stamens and pistils. 



The stamens which are formed of the woody 

 part of the plant, are slender thread-like sub- 

 stances, varying in number in different flowers, 

 and placed within the corolla, and on the outside 

 of the pistil which they surround. On the top, 

 or upper extremity, is situated the anther ; a 

 small prominent bag, or viscus, which contains in 

 cells, or rather in globules, the pollen, farina, or 

 dust, (most frequently of a white, though some- 

 times of a yellow, orange, or of a violet color,) 

 that forms the great principle of fertilization, and 

 therefore is deserving of particular attention. 

 From the anther descends a fine line of communi- 

 cation called the filament, which attaches the 

 stamen to the receptacle, though sometimes to 



