RUDIMENTS ON THE NATURAL SYSTEM OF BOTANY. 
233 
prehended when they are afterwards used in description, we have thought it better 
to explain them. 
The last peculiarity in the stamens we shall here mention, is that the dissimilarity 
in regard to the length of their filaments, or the slender thread-like stalks on which 
they are raised, is of some use to the examiner of the Natural System ; and the 
singular abortions which prevail in a few Orders, wherein a certain number of 
stamens are regularly turned into petals, with the curious want of symmetry in 
others which have no correspondence in the quantity of their petals and stamens, 
are facts which it will be necessary to retain in the memory. 
By descending into a more refined investigation, we find the stamen to have a 
little ball, containing the pollen-grains or fertilizing matter, on its summit, and to 
this botanists have given the designation of anther. The anther ordinarily consists 
of two nearly parallel cells, which open longitudinally. Sometimes, however, this 
character is departed from. One Natural Order has pollen with only one cell ; 
another ejects its pollen through pores ; a third throws off the entire face of the 
anther ; and there are still further differences in the manner by which the anthers 
are connected with the filament. Even the pollen itself, or that powdery substance 
which covers the anther, is made available for detecting affinities, since it is existent, 
in one or two Orders, in quite a waxy state. 
Not to pass over any subject which will be likely hereafter to be brought 
forward, we quote the following from Dr. Lindley's excellent Introduction to the 
Natural System : — " Immediately between the stamens and the ovarium is some- 
times found a fleshy ring or fleshy glands called a disk^ and supposed, for very good 
reasons, to represent an inner row of imperfectly-developed stamens. The presence 
of this disk is constant in VmhellifercE^ CompositcE, Labiatce^ BoraginecB^ RosacecB^ 
and many others, while its absence is equally universal in others. It is not, 
however, much used as a principal mark of distinction, its real value not having 
been yet ascertained." It is stated as very remarkable that this disk, although 
discernible in some orders which have the divisions of their pericarp or seed-vessel 
arranged right and left with regard to the direction of the flower-stalk, is not to 
be discovered in those which have them pointing to and from the general axis. 
Extending our investigation to those members of a flower which lie still more 
concealed, the ovarium next meets our view. This is ever considered as the female 
organ of a plant, or that by which an increase is occasioned. It projects a single 
column from its summit, called the stigma, which is either preserved entire or 
divided into a greater or less quantity of lobes. Such a division of the stigma, 
though often useless in itself to the inquiring student, is valuable as a pretty correct 
index to the separation of the ovary ; for on the partition or non-partition of the 
latter organ, an important distinction is based. 
Where the ovary is present, it has an exterior envelope or case, which protects 
the seeds, and is designated the pericarp. When it is palpably partitioned, it .is 
styled apocarpous ; and when the partitions are all conglomerated into a central; 
VOL. VII. NO. LXXXII. II H 
