342 



AUTOGAMY. 



excluded, the filaments straighten themselves again and then move like the hands 

 of a clock towards the middle of the flower, where they press their anthers, which 

 still retain a little pollen, upon the stigma. 



The stamens, which are instrumental in effecting autogamy by movements of 

 inclination in the direction of the stigma, are straight at the commencement of th6 

 period of flowering in all the plants above enumerated. Sometimes they curve 



Fig. 296.— Autogamy effected by the inclination of curved stamens. 



,n^ htrZr. T 7r V *"" ^™"u *^'"°'' ^^'""^*' Pecten.Ve,u>ris). ^ 3, * Successive positions assumed by the 



true hermaphrodite flowers of the Venus' Comb at first with a viewto cross-ferti&ation.afterwards with a vlewto autogamy 

 with » r'T™ ^""TT- T"'^'*,^ '"» '™« hermaphrodite flowers of the Fool's Parsley (.«te« Ci,««pmm)Ttot 

 with a view to croas-fertilization, afterwards with a view to autogamy. All the flgures magnifled. m; at nrsu 



outwards for a short time, but before the flower fades, and particularly at the 

 moment of autogamy, they are invariably erect again. 



There is, however, another group of plants to be considered in which the 

 filaments are already infiexed in the bud, and continue so at the time when pollen 

 from the anthers at their extremities is deposited upon the adjacent stigmas. 

 The most important examples of plants exhibiting this autogamy by means of 

 an inclination of inflexed filaments are afforded by several annual UmbeUifers 

 with protogynous flowers {^thusa Gynapium, Gaucalis daucoides, Scandix Pecten- 

 Vener^, Turgenia latifolia, &c.). Two kinds of flowers are associated together 

 in the umbels of the Venus' Comb {Scandix Pecten-Veneris; see fig. 296i.2.s.*) 



