HOT-HOUSE OR STOVE PLANTS. 



123 



time, setting wiU happen ; but if joint action be 

 impossible from any cause, the berries will not set. 



Transfer of Pollen.— So then, it is a vital neces- 

 sity that the pollen be conveyed to the stigma, through 

 whose medium it acts on the germ within the ovules. 

 The next point demanding consideration naturally 

 is, how this conveyance is effected f A gardener 

 often does it with a camel's-hair brush, with which 

 he removes the pollen from the anther to place it on 

 the stigma of the same, or of another flower ; or, 

 more roughly, he wiU shake the pollen out from his 

 Peach-trees by giving the stems a knock with his 



But in Linnseus's time the process was supposed to 

 be confined to " flowering plants," so called because 

 they alone were supposed to be endowed with 

 sexes, and it is only within the last quarter of a 

 century or so that the same processes have been 

 detected in so many of the so-called Cryptogams. 

 Now the process is, as before said, considered to be 

 practically universal in its occurrence; and it has 

 been shown how the essence of it is the same in widely 

 differing orders of plants. "We must next consider 

 that actuiil bringing together of the two sexual ele- 

 ments, which is known by the name of Fertilisation ; 

 such then will be the subject of our next chapter. 



Pig. 77. — Male 

 Flower of tlie 

 Willow, consist- 

 ing of a scale 

 witll two star- 

 mens (magnified). 



Fig. 78. — Female 

 Flower of the 

 "Willow, consist- 

 ing of a scale 

 and stallced pis- 

 til (magnified). 



Fig. 79.— Male Catkin of the "Wil- Fig. 80 Female CatMn of the Willow, 



low, consisting of groups of made up of numerous female flowers 

 male flowers as in Fig. 77. like Fig. 78. 



stick, or by shaking a branch with pollen-bearing 

 flowers over the female flowers, as was done by the 

 Arabs ages before the German Camerarius, the 

 Italian Csesalpinus, or the English Nehemiah Grew,* 

 had formulated the doctrine of sexuality in flowers. 

 Linnaeus adopted that doctrine, brought forward 

 numerous new proofs in support of it, and, as we all 

 know, based his system of classification upon it. 



• Grew in his "Anatomy of Plants," published in 1682, says, 

 at p. 173 :— " In discourse hereof [relating to the use of the 

 " attire " or stamens] with our learned Savilian Professor, 

 Sir Thomas Milllngton, he told me, he conceived that the 

 attire doth serve as the male for the generation of the 

 Seed. I immediately replied that I was of the same 

 opinion ; and gave him some reasons for it, and answered 

 some objections which might oppose them." Grew then 

 goes on to express his views in detail, some of which ore 

 wholly untenable in the light of the present day, but in 

 which, nevertheless, the doctrine 'that the same plant is 

 both male and female' is clearly laid down, and from his 

 point of view correctly so, although the statement is now 

 known only to he correct so far as structure is con- 

 oemed, and not always equally so as to function. 



HOT-HOUSE OR STOVE PLANTS. 



By "William Hugh Gower. 



Aphelandra. — From apheles, "simple," and aner, 

 " a male " ; in allusion to these plants having one- 

 ceUed anthers. They belong to the order Acanthacea, 

 which contains a host of beautiful flowering plants, 

 although some species of Aphelandras have not only 

 beautiful flowers, but fine variegated leaves as well ; 

 formerly they were included in the genus Jmticia, 

 to which they are very nearl}' allied. These plants 

 are very free in growth, yet require some attention 

 to keep them well furnished with leaves, and present- 

 able ; when neglected they soon lose their foliage, and 

 have a very wretched appearance. Pot them in loam 

 and peat, in the proportion of two parts of the 

 former to one of the latter, with the addition of 

 some sharp sand ; drain the pots well, and give them 

 plenty of water ; after flowering it wiU be found 

 advantsigeous to withhold the water-supply to a 

 great extent, and place them in a somewhat lower 



