ANGIOSPERMS. 
543 
assumed, until more exact observations bring something different to light, that each 
pollen-sac (i.e. each loculus with its wall) corresponds to a sporangium, and hence 
also to a single pollen-sac of Cycadese and Cupressinese ; and that therefore the 
anther usually consists of four pollen-sacs springing side by side from the anterior or 
posterior side of a staminal leaf, the sacs lying in pairs so close to one another 
right and left of the connective, that they coalesce more or less laterally to form one 
anther-lobe. But before we pass on to the consideration of the pollen-sacs and 
their contents, we must again recur to the discussion of the entire stamen and. 
androecium. 
The stalk of the anther (the filament with its connective) is either simple or 
segmented. The simple filament may be filiform (Fig. 359) or expanded into the 
form of a leaf (Fig. 358), sometimes even very broad, as in Asclepiadeae and 
Apocynaceae; or it may be broad below (Fig. 363,/) or above; it generally termi- 
nates between the two anther-lobes, but is not unfrequently prolonged above 
them (Fig. 358, D) as a projection, or in the form of a long appendage as in the 
Oleander. If the upper part of the stalk, the connective, is broad, the two anther- 
FlG. 362. — Stamen of 3fa/i09tut y4g!n'- FIG. 362-— Stamen of ^rdit/?/s kydrzda, FlG. 364. — Stamens of Centj-adenia 
folium; B with the anther open (by re- antlier open (by pores) ; x appendage. rosea ; A a lar^jer fertile one, B a smaller 
curved valves). sterile one of the same flower. 
lobes are distinctly separated (Figs. 358, 362); if it is narrow, they lie close to one 
another. The articulation of the stalk is very commonly the result of the con- 
nective being sharply separated from the filament by a deep constriction; the 
connection of the two is then maintained by so thin a piece that the anther, together 
with the connective which unites the anther-lobes, swings very lightly as a whole on 
the filament (versatile anther). The point of connection may be at the lower end, at 
the centre (Fig. 363), or at the upper part of the connective; sometimes the detached 
connective attains a considei'able size, and forms appendages beyond the anther 
(Fig. 364, x), or it is developed between the two lobes like a cross-bar, so that 
the filament and connective form a T, as in the Lime, and to a much greater extent 
in Salvia, where the transversely extended connective bears an anther-lobe on one 
arm only, while the other is sterile and is adapted for a different purpose. Whether 
the anther-lobes are parallel depends on the mode of their connection with the 
connective ; if they are so, they are usually attached to the connective for their 
whole length ; or in other cases they are separated above, or free below and 
coherent above, in which case they may become placed at such a distance from one 
