1896] CURRENT LITERATURE 69 
opment may vary considerably, sometimes the reduced organs being almost 
imperceptible and sometimes almost normally developed. Goebel remarks 
“That ‘normally’ reduced organs occasionally develop is common enough.” 
The ray flowers of Composite, the fifth stamen of Acanthus mollis and the 
outer flower of Viburnum Ofulus show the stamen in the form of a roundish 
elevation hardly perceptible to the naked eye. In a further step this first 
development is visible but no archesporium is formed. In many cases the 
rudiments are raised upon filaments as in Ca/a/fa, or the entire organ may 
have a leaf-like aspect as in staminodia of Linum. 
Another step shows that a cell-division which would otherwise lead to 
normal anther development sets in, but the staminodium remains in an inter- 
rupted stage. Here great variations are possible. Only the archesporium 
mother-cell may differentiate. Usually, however, more divisions occur an 
one can find the development arrested at all stages. In Boronia the stami- 
nodia in outward form closely resemble stamens. In Boronia megastigma, in 
earlier stages of development, stamens and staminodia show the same cell 
divisions, but in the staminodia the archesporium is smaller and so changes 
itself by repeated division that in the mature staminodium the cell divisions 
bear no resemblance to those of stamens. A nearly normal development is 
seen when the anthers form regularly but remain smaller than the perfect 
anthers, as in Cassia. When staminodia are to serve as organs of secretion, 
cell divisions resembling archesporium formation set in, but the epidermal 
cells frequently take part and so furnish an outlet for the secretion. The 
case in which staminodia become petaloid with no trace of anther formation 
must be considered the most extreme transformation. 
As to the function of staminodia, two observers disagree. H. Miller” 
and Heinricher 7 regard them as useless organs, while Kerner v. Merilaun 
doubts whether any plant produces anything which is not of advantage and 
which is not necessary. Even those organs which people so freely call 
“rudimentary” are not without meaning for the life of the plant. Our author 
believes that the transformed stamens play a useful réle in the economy of 
the plant. They may serve for attraction, they may be a protection to the 
young stigma, they may furnish a resting place for the insect visitor, they 
may secrete honey, they may direct the insect to the honey or prevent the 
honey. from running out. j 
In flowers with many stamens and staminodia the transition from one to 
the other is gradual. A reduction of the anther-cells in size and number, a 
one-sided development of the same, a crowding from the normal position 
and also changes in the vascular bundle, filament and connective are shown 
by transitional forms. 
Schenk, Handbuch der Bot. 1. 
7 Oesterreich, Bot. Zeitschrift 44:—. 1894. [no. 2.] 
