Familiar lectures on botany, practical, elementary, and physiological : with an appendix containing descriptions of the plants of the United States and exotics, &c., for the use of seminaries and private students / by Almira H. Lincoln.
- Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps
- Date:
- 1836
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Familiar lectures on botany, practical, elementary, and physiological : with an appendix containing descriptions of the plants of the United States and exotics, &c., for the use of seminaries and private students / by Almira H. Lincoln. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
74/432
![in the fig-tree. Although in the case of plants whose stamens and pistils are on separate flowers, we see this advantage arising from the fact of insects being attracted by the honey, yet the greater number of plants do not need any assistance in conveying pollen to the stigmas. Some imagine that honey contributes to the perfection of the stamens : but plants that do not appear to secrete honey, have perfect stamens. One thing, however, is certain with respect to this fluid, that without detriment to the plant, it yields to the industrious bee the materia] for the manufacture of honey, a luxury highly valued from the most ancient times. Virgil knew that bees made honey from the juices which they gathered from flowers; and we indeed, on this sy^ject, know but little more than he has beautifully expressed in his pastorals. Although we are ever discovering something new and wonderful in the economy of- nature; and, in some cases, seem permitted to search into the hidden mysteries of her great Author, yet in our re- searches we are continually made sensible of the limited nature of our own faculties ; and a still, small voice, seems to whisper to man. in the proudest triumphs of his reason, Hitherto shall thou go, but no farther. LECTURE XIII. STAMENS AND PISTILS. I Although the calyx and the corolla may be wanting, the stamens and pistils are indispensable to the perfection of the fruit. They are in most plants enclosed by the same envelope, or stand on the same receptacle ; in the class Monoscia they are on different flowers which spring from one common root; and in Dicecia, they are on different flowers, springing from different roots. Yet, however distant the stamens and pistils may be, nature has provided ways by which the pollen from the staminate flowers may be conveyed to the pistillate, and there assist in perfecting the seed. That you may the better understand this curious process, and the organs by means of which it is carried on, we will examine each one separately. Stamens. Stamens are thread-like parts whjch are exterior with respect to the pistil, and interior to the corolla.'1 They exhibit a variety of po- sitions with respect to the pistil. These positions seldom vary in the same family, and they have therefore been taken by the cele- brated Jussieu as one of the fundamental distinctions in his classifi- cation, called-the Natural method. If the stamens are inserted upon the pistil, as in umbelliferous plants, they are said to be epigy- nous (from epi, upon, and gynia, pistil;) if the stamens are inserted under the germ, as in cruciform plants, they are said to be hypogy- nous (from hypo, under, and gynia, pistil;) when the stamens are in- serted upon the calyx, and thus stand around the germ, as in the ro- saceous plants, they are said to be perigynoits, (fromperi, around, and gynia, pistil.) I When a corolla is monopetalous, the number of the stamens is usually, either equal, double, or half thatof the divisions of the corolla' *he stamens in such flowers never exceed twenty. Reflections—Stamens and pistHs necessary to the perfection of the fruit-^-Defini- fttonsof the stamen—Positions with respect to the pistils-Divisions of monopetalous ifcrollas usually in proportion to the number of stamens.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21147267_0074.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
