CHAP. II. 
STAMENS. 
147 
shorter, they are didynamous ; if four out of six are longest, 
they are tetradynamous. 
The number of stamens is indicated by a Greek numeral 
prefixed to the word androus^ which signifies male, thus : — 
One stamen is Monandrous. 
Two — Diandrous. 
Three — Triandrous. 
Four — Tetrandrous. 
Five — Pentandrous. 
Six — Hexandrous. 
Seven — Heptandrous. 
Eight — Octandrous. 
Nine — Enneandrous. 
Ten — Decandrous. 
Eleven or twelve stamens, Dodecandrous. 
Twelve to twenty — Icosandrous. 
Above twenty — Polyandrous, or Indefinite. 
The filament (Plate III.) {capillamentum, or pediculus, of 
some) is the part that supports the anther. It consists of a 
bundle of delicate woody tissue and spiral vessels, surrounded 
by cellular tissue, and is in all respects the same as the petiole 
of a leaf, of which it is a modification, except that its parts are 
more delicate. As the petiole is unessential to the leaf, so is 
the filament to the anther, it being frequently absent, or at 
least so strictly united to the sides of the calyx or corolla as to 
be undistinguishable. Its most common figure is filiform or 
cylindrical (Plate III. fig. 12, 13. 20, 21.), and it is almost 
always destitute of colour ; but there are exceptions to both 
these characters. In Fuchsia, for instance, the filaments are 
red like the petals ; in Adamia they are blue ; in CEnothera 
they are yellow ; and a return to the foliaceous state of which 
they usually are a distinct modification is by no means rare. 
(Plate IV. fig. 6. 8.) Thus the filament in Canna is undis- 
tinguishable from petals except by its having an anther; 
in the same genus and its allies, and in all Scitamineae, the 
inner series of what seem to be petals are modifications of 
filaments (see Introduction to the Nat. Syst. p. 265.) : and this 
is a very common circumstance in sterile stamens. 
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