336 QUESTIONS IN RELATION TO THE 
is also an absence of any notice of the glands in this connection, though 
they must be accounted rudimentary stamens and ought unquestionably 
to be taken into account in any attempt at restoring the true symmetry 
of the flower. They are found in numbers varying from two to ten 
in different species. In some genera indeed entirely suppressed, but 
in others conspicuous enough and offering us assistance, which is 
surely not to be rejected. The extreme number ten with the four 
carpels, 6 stamens usually developed, 4 petals and 4 sepals gives 28 
parts or 7 circles of 4 parts each. There is a peculiarity in the 
arrangement of the parts which also affords us important assistance in 
explaining the appearances, to which sufficient attention has not been 
given. If we look at the calyx or outer circle, we perceive that the 
anterior and posterior sepals are exterior to the lateral pair and a 
little more developed, in some instances so much as to produce small 
gibbous protuberances like incipient tails at their bases. The circle of 
petals is very equal, alternating with the sepals. It is followed by 
the shorter pair of stamens, which has the appearance of being exterior 
to the other four, and the circle according to our theory; is completed 
by two glands, (bemg rudimentary stamens,) which in many genera 
are conspicuous in front of each pair of longer stamens and opposite 
to the anterior and posterior sepals. The four longer stamens form 
the next circle, which like the petals is equal; within this are to be 
placed 4 glands, which are manifest in many species at each side of 
the outer stamens, but whose position is really interior to the longer 
stamens. There is another set of glands of which two immediately 
behind the shorter stamens are not unfrequently to be traced, very 
rarely the least appearance of the whole four, and then we arrive at the 
carpels of which the most developed pair having their faces to the 
