172 LETTER XIV. 



peculiar manner. From the base of the corolla, and 

 consequently from the summit of the ovary, spring 

 five stamens {fig. 1.), whose filaments are broad, 

 firm, and fringed {fig. 2.), curving inwards at the 

 base, and bending over the top of the ovary, as if to 

 guard it from injury ; their points touch the style, 

 and keep the anthers parallel, and in contact with it, 

 till they shrivel up and fall back, which happens 

 immediately after the flower unfolds. The style is a 

 taper stiff column, about the length of the corolla, 

 and longer than the stamens. It is covered all over, 

 up to the very tips of the stigma, with stiff hairs {fig. 

 4.) which nature has provided to sweep the pollen 

 out of the cells of the anthers, as the style passes 

 through them in lengthening ; if it were not for this 

 simple but effectual contrivance, as the anthers burst 

 as soon as ever the corolla opens, their pollen would 

 drop out of the nodding flowers and be lost before the 

 stigma was expanded and ready to receive the ferti- 

 lizing influence ; the hairs of the style catch the 

 pollen and keep it till insects, wind, or accident brush 

 it down upon the inverted stigmas. 



Next let us look at the ovary. This organ is in 

 the Hare-hell a case containing three cavities or cells 

 {fig. 3.), surrounding a central axis ; in each cell 

 there is a large fleshy receptacle, over which is 

 spread a multitude of ovules. After the stigma is 

 fertilized, the corolla and the stamens drop off, the 

 sepals harden, enlarge, and collapse, all the parts 

 become browner and thicker, stout ribs appear in the 

 substance of the ovary, which droops still more than 



