56 



VITAL ACTIONS. 



called stamens and pistil, of which the pistil occupies 

 the centre, and the stamens surround it ; except in 

 those cases where the sexes are produced in separate 

 flowers, when each sex is central in its own flower. 

 The stamens consist of a filament and an anther, in 

 the inside of the latter of which is secreted a powdery 

 substance called pollen. The pistil consists of ovary, 

 style, and stigma, in the inside of the first of which 

 are ovules or young seeds. 



82. Although the floral envelopes may be, and often 

 are, absent, wholly or in 

 part, yet the sexes are al 

 ways present. Consequent- 

 ly the latter are all that is 

 essential to a flower, and 

 no part can be a flower 

 from which they are ab- 

 sent. 



83. Notwithstanding the 

 difference in form and of- 

 fice of the parts of a flow- 

 er, they have evidently a 

 strong tendency, in cul- 

 tivated plants, to change 

 into or assume the appear- 

 ance of each other. In the 

 Poppy, the Garden Ane- 

 mone,, and many others, 

 the stamens change into 

 petals; in the Anemone, 

 pistil changes into petals ; 



the Eanunculus, &c, the 

 in the Primrose, Cowslip, 



