TO 
STAMENS. 
"We then resort to position, and consider whether the stamens are inserted upot 
the calyx oi the receptacle, thus furnishing an eleventh and a twelfth class. 
Inequality in the length of stamens, when they are either four or six, furnishes uf 
with a thirteenth and fourteenth class. 
The connection or union of stamens gives us the fifteenth class, Where the fila 
ments of the stamens are united in one set ; the sixteenth class, where they are in 
two sets • the seventeenth, where the anthers of the stamens are united. 
The three remaining classes of phenogamous plants are distinguished by the 
position of the stamens with respect to the pistils. In the eighteenth class the sta 
mens stand on the pistil ; in the nineteenth the stamens and pistils are on separate 
flowers on the same plant ; in the twentieth they are on separate plants ; and ir 
the twenty-first they are invisible, or wanting. 
78. Parts of the Stamen. — ^The Filament is so called fron 
-fllum., a thread. It consists of a thin ejpidermh., cellular tissuo, 
and spiral vessels; the latter extend through the whole lengt/i, 
and terminate at the union of the filament with the antliei. 
Filaments vary in their form ; some are long and slender, as in 
the pink; others are short and thick, as in the luiip. They 
are usually smooth, but in the mullein they are bearded, in the 
spider-w^ort they are covered with down. In most cases a fila- 
ment supports but one anther, but sometimes it is forked, and 
bears two or more; in some instances many filaments have 
but one anther. When the filaments are inclosed in the tube 
of the corolla, they are said to be inserted; when they extend 
out of it, exserted. In some cases the filament is wanting, and 
the anther is sessile, or immediately attached to the corolla. 
a. In double flowers, the stamens, which seem to be intimately connected with 
the parts of the corolla, are changed to petals. This is the effect of cultivation, 
which, by affording the stamens excess of nourishment, causes them to expand and 
thus assume the form of petals. In some double flowers almost every trace of the 
stamens disappears ; in others, it is easy to perceive the metamorphosis which they 
have undergone, as they retain something of their original forms. In double flowers 
the anthers usually disappear, which shows that the filaments have absorbed the 
nourishment. In double roses some stamens appear entirely changed, others re 
tain something of their form, and others remain perfect. When all the stamens 
disappear, no perfect fVuit is produced. On account of this degeneration of the 
stamens, cultivated flowers are not usually so good for botanical analysis as wild 
ones. The single flower exhibits the number of parts which nature has given to it. 
The rose in its native state has but five petals. 
Y9. The Anther is supposed to be formed of the lamina of 
the leaf ; it consists of cells containing minute particles, called 
pollen, which in the mature state of the flower is thrown out by 
the bursting of the cells. The lobes of the anther may be con- 
sidered as formed by the two halves of the lamina of the leaf, 
the midrib being represented by the connective, and the mar- 
gins by the suture, or line by which the lobes of the anther 
usually open. That part of the cellular tissue of the leaf next 
the cuticle is changed into a fibrous tissue, while the grains 
of pollen are transformed from the remainder of the tissue. 
78. Filament — a. Stamens changed to petals. — 79. Structure of tlie anther 
