By Thomas Bruges Flower, Esq. 



95 



sensible to the contact of extraneous substances, which thus causes 

 the stamen to approach the pistil. This is not the result of elasti- 

 city, for the stamen is not forcibly detained in contact with the 

 floral envelopes, but it is a truly vital act, the result of the operation 

 of an organic sensation. This organic sensibility is of a similar 

 kind to that by which the heart of an animal is sensible of the pre- 

 sence of the blood which it contains, and by which it is stimulated 

 to contract in order to effect its expulsion. The absence of favour- 

 able mechanical arrangements is therefore compensated by the pre- 

 sence of an extraordinary vital power. The probability of the irri- 

 table stamen being touched by foreign substances, would however 

 have been too remote to serve the economy of the plant. This 

 defect is therefore remedied by the contraction of the stamen being 

 ensured through the agency of insects, which visiting the flower, 

 touch the irritable filaments, and thus cause the stamen to arise. 

 It is to be observed, that the visit of the insect to the barberry does 

 not depend on chance, but is necessary for purposes in its own econ- 

 omy, and thus the insect creation is indissolubly connected with 

 that of vegetation, the subserviency of actions affording us demon- 

 strative proof of the unity of design in the various departments of 

 the organic creation. At the base of each petal, there are two 

 orange coloured glands, which secrete a sweet juice, and it is to 

 gather this nectareous fluid that the insect visits the flower. The 

 filament of each stamen, when it is expanded, lies between these 

 two glands; and the irritability is confined to the part of the fila- 

 ment which thus corresponds to their situation. The contraction 

 of the stamen is therefore ensured by the attempts of the insect to 

 procure the fluid, which exuding from the contiguous glands, mois- 

 tens the seat of irritability in the filament. Again, if with all 

 these contrivances the anthers had opened as in other flowers, either 

 by longitudinal slits on their inner or outer surface, or by pores at 

 the very summit, the fertilization of the seed would scarcely have 

 been effected, for the absorbing surface of the stigma is not as in 

 other instances situated at the extremity of the pistil, but occupies 

 the circumference of the circular disk, by which it is terminated. 

 This is the only part which is moistened with the glutenous secre- 



