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 the 

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



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



1 Pseudo-hermaphrodite male flowers of the Venus' Comb (Scandix Pecten- Veneris). ^, 3, 4 Successive positions assumed by the 

 true hermaphrodite flowers of the Venus' Comb at first with a view to cross-fertilization, afterwards with a view to autogamy. 

 5, 6, 7 Successive positions assumed by the true hei-maphrodite flowers of the Fool's Parsley {./Ethusa Cynapium) at first 

 with a view to cross-fertilization, afterwards with a view to autogamy. All the figures magnified. 



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 inflexed 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 Umbellifers 

 with protogynous flowers {jEthusa Cynapium, Caucalis daucoides, Scandix Pecten- 

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

 in the umbels of the Venus' Comb (Scandix Pecten- Veneris: see fig. 296^'^'^'*),. 



