74 LETTER V. 



ray (or crown of thorns, as the Spaniards called it) 

 in the Passion-flower ; the crimson blotches upon 

 it really do look like stains of blood. It diminishes 

 gradually in size towards the inside of the flower, 

 till at last it loses itself in some little rings, one of 

 which often surrounds the base of the column we 

 have still to examine in the centre {fig. 2. «.). Bota- 

 nists themselves are hardly agreed upon the real na- 

 ture of these singular rays ; while some think them 

 imperfect petals, others think them imperfect sta- 

 mens : a question of very little moment, and which 

 you are, as yet, unprepared to discuss ; they are, 

 probably, parts in a state of change from one to the 

 other. 



In the very centre of the flower, from the bottom 

 of the cup, rises a column {fig. 'i.), at the top of 

 which are five stamens, each with a narrow two- 

 lobed anther, swinging from the point of a flat fila- 

 ment ; you will wonder to see that these anthers in- 

 stead of turning their faces to the stigmas, like most 

 other anthers, are so contrived as to turn their backs 

 upon them ; so that when they burst the pollen cannot 

 fall upon the stigmas. This, however incomprehen- 

 sible an arrangement it may appear to us, is by no 

 means an event of unfrequent occurrence, as you will 

 hereafter discover ; nobody has yet found out the cause 

 of it. What now is the column from which the stamens 

 seem to rise ? The base of the filament, you say. To 

 a certain extent, you are right. The outside of the 

 column, which is speckled like the filaments, is con- 

 structed, as you imagine ; but if you cut it you will 



