STAMENS. 86 



STAMENS. 



As the last patches of snow disappear from the fields, the Snowdrop raises its 

 hite bells, and the catkins of the Willow break through the bondage of their bud- 

 sales; in the copses likewise, where the warm March sunbeams penetrate, the 

 [azel begins to blossom and sheds its powder. These are the signs that spring is 

 Dming, and that the long winter is over. For some time the flowers both of the 

 nowdrop and Hazel have been ready — in the Snowdrop under ground, wrapped up 

 1 sheathing leaves; in the Hazel on the twigs as short, cylindrical, dusky catkins. 

 7ith the advent of spring the catkins stretch and their crowded flowers are 

 sparated, they becoming flexible and hang like golden tassels from the branches, 

 waying in the wind and giving off their clouds of dust. 



To this powder, long known to be connected with the fruiting of plants, the 

 ame of flower-dust has been given. This term, suitable in so many cases, has been 

 sed in others for a substance which, although corresponding in function to the 

 ower-dust of the Hazel, differs from it in appearance. The cells which take the form 

 f dust in the Hazel assume in other plants the form of sticky, viscous lumps, of 

 pindle-shaped masses or granulated bodies, to which the designation dust is quite 

 aappropriate. Were the species of plants whose flowers do not produce dust but 

 ew the term could stand, but when we find belonging to this category many of 

 he principal families of plants — ten thousand Composites, eight thousand Orchids, 

 ve thousand Labiates, four thousand Rubiacese, three thousand Papilionacese, and 

 housands of Umbellifers, Eosaceae, Crucifers, &c.; that, roughly speaking, two- 

 hirds of Flowering Plants do not produce dust, it is evident that the term cannot 

 ave a general application. Consequently, Botanists speak of Pollen and not 

 ower-dust. It is true this word simply means flour, and that its selection has 

 ot been a very happy one. Still the term has entered into botanical terminology, 

 rhere it will remain. It is given to all those cells produced in the flowers of 

 'hanerogams, which contain the spermatoplasm. 



Pollen, then, consists of cells which contain spermatoplasm, and may be compared 

 3 the antheridia of Cryptogams. A definite portion of the substance of certain 

 javes of the floral axis is appropriated to the production of Pollen. These leaves, 

 nown as Stamens, resemble the other leaves of the floral axis in that they are 

 iserted in whorls, or one above the other in a much-flattened spiral. Very few 

 pecies of plants possess only a single stamen in each flower. The majority of 

 owers contain stamens arranged spirally or in whorls. As a rule stamens are 

 iserted according to the i or f system (of. vol. i. pp. 399, 400). In many cases 

 leir number and insertion resembles that of the petals and carpels of the same 

 ower, though more frequently there is a difference. Thus, in the flowers of the 

 'ulip-tree (Liriodendron), whilst the perianth-leaves have a divergence of i, the 

 ;amens are arranged according to the ^ system. In Banuncuhis the leaves of the 

 erianth are arranged on the f plan, the stamens on the t^; in Polygonum the 

 )rmer on the -|, the latter on the f system. 



