228 PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES ON 



veins of the leaf or branelilets of the leaf -stem. We iiiiist further 

 divest our mind of the terms ventral and dorsal. These aspects 

 of the stem-leaf have reference only to its lighted or shaded aspect. 

 The stem, when cylindrical and erect, has no ventral or dorsal 

 aspect, unless we choose to call its southern and northern aspects 

 by such names. 



I do not say that the sori-arrangement of ferns is the only 

 mould from which the anthers could have evolved, but I do think 

 that the fructification of ferns and the anthers of phsenogams 

 have had a common beginning. Apart from the origin of 

 the anther, there is, perhaps, as interesting a study to be 

 got out of the modifications it has undergone in phaenogams 

 themselves, as in the study of the transformations of their 

 leaves. 



Now I propose to analyse the anther tlirough an entirely 

 different route, which, apparently, could not possiljly lead 

 to it. 



On the petiole of the cherry, peach, apricot, &c. there are two 

 glands. Sometimes they are at the base of the blade or on its 

 margin, and sometimes lower down on the petiole. We find, 

 probably, homologous glands on the petals of Berbeins imlgaris, 

 Fis. 80. 



Fi^. 80. Petal of Barberry, showing its two glands (ma^.). 



On the young leaves of the chcu-ry and others these glands are 

 of a reddish colour. 



On each of the teeth of the }'oung leaves of these and similar 

 trees there is a gland, also of a reddish colour. On the teeth of 

 the young unexpanded leaf of Viola odorata, Fig. 81, we have 

 similar tooth glands, and the leaf is curled up like a carpel. 



