14S PKOr. E. J. HAEVET-aiBSOX ON THE MOEPllOLOGY 



The Male Elowers. 



The male flowers, when young, are arranged in closely-packed alternating whorls, 

 which gradually open out as maturity is reached. The central axis cells are loaded with 

 " mystrin," as are also the cells of the bracts and perianths. Within the perianth-lobes 

 lie the anthers of the two stamens, whose connectives are also surrounded by cells 

 containing the same brown deposit. The male flower (fig. 13) is surrounded at its base 

 by three bracts. One of these, anterior in position, is stalked, with a spatliulate lamina, 

 and covered with long unicellular hairs on the abaxial side. There is a single central 

 vascular bundle as in the axis-leaves, and all the cells of the ground-tissue are filled 

 with " mystrin." The latero -posterior bracts are very much smaller and more scale-like^ 

 sessile, and fused for a certain distance upwards from their point of origin. These 

 bracts are also furnished with unicellular hairs along their margins and on their posterior 

 surfaces. Within the bracts and arising opposite to them are three perianth segments 

 which are fused at their bases to form a very short cup. The perianth segments are 

 nearly twice the length of the anterior bract. The anterior segment is slightly shorter 

 than the two posterior segments and stands apart from them. It has a single median 

 ascular bundle runnin^r through the slightly convexo-concave claw and is continued 



_ ij±xx vy l^_ 



unbranched into the concave spoon-shaped lamina. The perianth segments are only 

 slightly concave, and resemble exactly the figures given by Harvey (Ann. Nat. Hist. 

 ii. tt. 19, 20) for those of 31. Thomii. All the cells, both of claw and limb, are filled 

 with " mystrin." Griffith (Trans. Linn. Soc. xix. p. 337) in his description of M. Thomii 

 says, ** stamen tertium, dum adest, rudimentarium, adnatum ungui sepali tertii antici." 

 I have examined over a hundred male flowers of the plants in my possession, but I 

 have never found the slightest trace of any such third stamen. The posterior perianth 

 segments have free claws, but the limbs are united above. They are similar in form and 

 histological structure to the anterior segment, and have also concave limbs forming 

 a covering to the two functional stamens. The stamens arise just where the claw 

 broadens out into the limb, and the filament is inserted on the anther about half-way 

 up its length. Harvey {I. c. p. 386) describes the anthers as versatile, but Griffith and 

 Hooker speak of them as extrorse. As a matter of fact, in the unripe flower the 

 anthers are extrorse, but as the flower opens the anther becomes versatile and ends by 



the axis of the flowei 



to a complete inversion of position of the anther with refer 



The anther is markedly bilobed and the lobes open by longitudinal dehiscence. The 

 cells of the filament, including the vascular bundle, are full of " mystrin," and several 

 layers of cells surrounding the connective also contain the same deposit. The wall when 

 ripe is composed of one layer of cells, and the walls of these cells show the usual rib-like 

 thickenings common in anther-walls, save in the region of longitudinal dehiscence (fig. 14). 

 The pollen grains, as described by Harvey, are cubical as a rule, though some are 

 pentagonal or, rarely, hexagonal (fig. 15). Harvey figures the angles of the grains as 



