226 LETTEIl XIX. 



into the spur, half hidden by the petals, stands a 

 crimson flat body {fig. 3.) having a deep furrow in 

 its front. I should quite despair of explaining the 

 structure of it, without the assistance of a drawing, 

 which I accordingly send you : the parts are a good 

 deal magnified, as is usual in the dissection of flow- 

 ers by Botanists, in order to bring every thing dis- 

 tinctly into view. If you look attentively at the front 

 of the central body {fig. 3. a.), you will remark, in 

 the first place, that it is separated into two lobes, by a 

 deep channel drawn down its middle ; and secondly, 

 that each lobe will open, if pressed, by a suture {fig' 

 3. g.) running through it from one end to the other. 

 Pull asunder the two sides of each lobe, so as to lay 

 open their inside {fig. 4.), and in each there will be 

 seen an olive-green granular mass {fig. 4. ^.), tapering 

 gradually into a thin stalk, at the end of which is a 

 viscid semi-transparent gland {fig. 6. «.). If you 

 squeeze a portion of the olive-green granular mass in 

 water, beneath a very powerful microscope, you will 

 be surprised to see that it consists of infinite multi- 

 tudes of grains of pollen sticking together in threes 

 or fours ; it is therefore a mass of pollen in a sin- 

 gular state ; and this fact being taken as the basis of 

 your reasoning as to the nature of the other parts 

 connected with it, it will result as a necessary conse- 

 quence, that the central body is an anther, and its 

 sutures the lines of dehiscence, or of opening. At the 

 foot of the anther is a pale whitish-green fleshy cup 

 {fig. 3. dt and 4. a.\ in which the glands at the end 

 of the stalk of the pollen-masses arc concealed ; this 



