PISTILLODY. 303 
Pistillody of the stamens—— This change whereby the sta- 
mens assume more or less the appearance of pistils is 
more commonly met with than is the metamorphosis 
of the envelopes of the flower into carpels. In some 
cases the whole of the stamen appears to be changed, 
while in others it is the filament alone that is altered, 
the anther being deficient, or rudimentary; while, in a 
third class of cases, the filament is unaffected, and 
the anther undergoes the change in question. In 
those instances in which the filament appears to be 
the portion most implicated, it becomes dilated so as 
to resemble a leaf-sheath rather than a leaf-stalk, as it 
does usually. 
One of the most curious cases of this kind is that 
recorded in the ‘ Botanical Magazine,’ (tab. 5160, f. 
4) as having occurred in Begonia 
frigida already alluded to, and in 
which, in the centre of a male 
flower, were four free ovoid ovaries 
alternating with as many stamens. 
In the normal flowers of this plant, 
as is well known, the male flowers 
have several stamens, while in the 
female flowers the ovary is strictly 
inferior, so that, in the singular 
flower just described, the perianth 
was inferior instead of being supe- 
rior, as it is usually. It should be 
added also that the perianth in these 
malformed flowers was precisely like 
that which occurs ordinarily in the | 
mae et of the oran ph ae ae 
Se, numerary carpels in 
called by the French “ bigarades ge a. poate 
cornues,’’ the thalamus of the flower, pistils pa eine 
which is usually short, and termi- 
nated by a glandular ring-lke disc, is prolonged into 
a little stalk or gynophore, bearing a ring of super- 
numerary carpels. These carpels are isolated one 

