330 Campbell ’ — Studies on the Araceae , ///. 
Many small ants were noticed crawling over the plants at Kew, and 
it is highly probable, although this was not actually demonstrated, that they 
were the agents in carrying the pollen. 
The Flower. 
The spadix in Anthurium is completely covered with flowers which 
are all alike. There is a perianth composed of several scale-like leaves 
which do not, however, completely cover the stamens and pistil. There 
are four stamens regularly placed about the top-shaped pistil. The latter 
is composed of two carpels completely coherent, and in cross-section is 
conspicuously four-sided (PI. XIV, Fig. 2). The stamens consist of a short 
filament, and the anther has four loculi 1 . 
Engler considers the type of flowers found in the Pothoideae, to which 
Anthurium belongs, to be the primitive one for the Araceae, and thinks 
that the diclinous type found in most genera is the result of a reduction 
from the hermaphrodite flowers found in Anthurium and other similar 
genera. It seems to the writer more probable that this is not the case, and 
that the type of flower found in Anthurium is less primitive than the 
flower occurring in some genera. 
In A. violaceum , the young flower, aside from the perianth, consists of 
a short top-shaped pistil (Fig. 1) composed of two completely coherent 
carpels, which in transverse section shows the ovary to be strongly 
quadrangular, with two chambers, each containing two ovules. The 
placenta is axial, formed by the coherent faces of two carpels. 
The four stamens are in pairs corresponding to the flattened sides of 
the ovary and in all respects seem to correspond to the stamen of the 
typical angiospermous flower, so that no special study was made of the 
development. The divisions of the pollen mother-cells were not followed 
in detail. In the early prophase of nuclear division the chromosomes were 
very distinct, and, usually at least, sixteen in number. The divisions are 
completed while the ovules are still very young. The pollen-grains are 
small, nearly globular in form, and with a moderately thick wall. It was 
not determined whether or not the generative nucleus divides before 
the pollen germinates. The division of the pollen is complete while the 
ovules are still very small. 
The Ovule. 
When the ovules are first clearly recognizable, the pistil is a top- 
shaped body which in longitudinal section shows a central canal extending 
to the top of the placenta (Fig. 1). The young ovules are in pairs, and 
1 Engler and Prantl, Die natUrlichen Pflanzenfamilien, II, 3. Abt.,'pp. 107, hi. 
