METAMORPHOSIS. 181 



and Buddleia, and to many a petaloid stamen such as 

 one sees, for example, in Fuchsia. 



As deduced from the structures exhibited by other 

 stamens, this infolding of the ventral excrescence 

 clearly represents the structure which constitutes basal 

 continuation of the outer margins of the lamina with 

 the median ventral lamellge of such a half -transformed 

 stamen, for in these the lamellae are continuous with 

 the excrescence lobes. 



As Mastei's points out, petalody of the stamens is 

 more common in polypetalous than in gamopetalous 

 types of flower. 



Normal examples of petalody of the stamens occur 

 in Nature, as in the water-lily {Nymphaea alba) and 

 Ganna. 



In conclusion, petalody of the stamens must be 

 regarded as always a progressive phenomenon, because 

 it consists in adding a new structure to the original 

 organization of the flower. 



Hjbterostaminody. — Dunal mentions that in the 

 uppermost flowers of an inflorescence of the mullein 

 {Verhascum) the filaments of the stamens were quite 

 glabrous and more or less dilated. 



Moquin-Tandon found near Toulouse a plant of the 

 bittersweet (Solanum Dulcamara) in which all the 

 flowers had two or three stamens of gr-eater dimen- 

 sions than the rest ; and he points out that this is the 

 normal feature in 8. tridynamum and S. Amazonicum, 

 in which three stamens are larger than the others. 



Hildebrand found, in the zygomorphic flower of 

 Fuchsia above-described, that, correlatively with the 

 inequality in size of the petals, the filaments of the 

 stamens were of unequal length, precisely as is always 

 normally the case in the zygomorphic flowers of the 

 Labiate, etc. In the zygomorphic flowers of Begonia 

 observed by him there was no change in the androecium. 



Conversely, Hildebrand found that in a flower of 

 Mimulus luteus all four stamens were of equal length. 



