THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 153 
altered leaves; but here, taking on new and special com¬ 
plications, which are distinguishable into 
1. Filament, a thread or pedicel, supporting— 
2. Anther, a pouch or minute bag or box, containing— 
3. Pollen, separable granular matter, called fertilising 
powder. 
Now, these parts are sometimes so ingeniously com¬ 
plicated, that at first it is utterly impossible to accept the 
proposition that stamens are metamorphosed leaves; but we 
hope in a future chapter fully to make out this view of the 
matter. Still, when we see the anthers opening by little lids 
to let out the pollen, as in the bay tree, or the filament bent 
up like the spring of a trap, so as to scatter the pollen by its 
recoil, as may be seen in the common pelitory of the wall, 
when we notice these with the infinite contrivances pre¬ 
sented by stamens, we almost lose the notion of their simple 
elementary structure. Stamens vary in number in different 
species of plants, though they are mostly uniform in the 
same species, and hence has arisen a classification of plants 
hereafter to be mentioned. 
4. The Pistil is the central organ of a flower, and therefore, 
on the leaf theory, composes the innermost whorl of floral 
leaves; it, too, is complicated for special purposes, giving 
rise to the following parts :— 
1. The Stigma, the apex of the pistil, more or less 
organized. 
2. The Style, or minute stem, by which the stigma is 
elevated, reaching down to— 
3. The Germen, or seed vessel. 
All these parts are subject to many and great complica¬ 
tions, which we cannot now notice. We would, however, 
point out that the objects of these arrangements is that of 
the fecundation and fertilisation of the fruit and seed. 
The numbers of the pistilla vary, like those of the stamina; 
and it should be noted that, though in the generality of 
plants these two sets of organs consist of whorls, the former 
surrounded by the latter, yet that this is by no means always 
the case, as, for example, the catkins of the nut trees are the 
staminiferous or male flowers in separate bunches; but a close 
observer will see little pink pistils peeping out of buds on the 
same twigs. In the cucumber the fruit is produced from a 
separate flower from the one that grows the stamens. 
In the yew and the willows separate trees are devoted to 
the growth of these separate organs. 
Now, when the stamens surround the pistils, but little 
pollen, comparatively speaking, is needed. Where, however, we 
