THE MOEPHOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANTHER. 



By J. SNBLL. 



The botanical contributions to the Royal Institution o£ 

 Cornwall have hitherto been for the most part illustrative of the 

 Flora of the County. Eeference was made in the last Annual 

 Report of this Society to the ardour with which several of the 

 former members devoted themselves to acquire a knowledge of 

 the plants indigenous to Cornwall. The excellent work per- 

 formed by these worthy zealots has been ably supplemented from 

 time to time by the labours of Mr. T. A. Cragoe. I am of 

 opinion that the thoroughness of the work thus accomplished 

 leaves little to be done by subsequent collaborators, except 

 perhaps among the Characeae and fresh water Algae. 



We are not, however, alone in this respect. The time has 

 arrived when satisfied, if not satiated with lists of varieties and 

 species, the Botanist has sought relief and inspiration in the 

 domains of vegetable Morphology and Physiology. It is to the 

 former branch of this subject that I wish to draw the attention 

 of any who may be disposed to enter upon the study of a recent 

 and most attractive department of science. 



At the outset it behoves us well to understand that a flower 

 consists of a succession of whorls or rosettes of specially meta- 

 morphosed leaves — morphologically identical with the other 

 foliar appendages of the stem— functionally different, and further, 

 that, like other ordinary cauline outgrowths these rosettes of 

 floral leaves grow in what is styled an acropetal order : — that is, 

 the more remote any whorl of leaves is from the apical point the 

 less recent is it in regard to its appearance. The plan of a hori- 

 zontal section of a flower will facilitate the conception of these 

 two principles. See Diagram I. Proceeding from the periphery 

 to the centre we have four zones of leaves which succeed each 

 other in the order of their development. 



The following passage occurs in Sachs' " Text Book of 

 Botany," (p. 531) : — " One of the most remarkable deviations 

 from the general rule of the order of development of the floral 



