The existence of the parts under consideration is so incontrovertible in every flower around us, that Pontedera was reduced to seek plants without stamens among the figures of the Hortus Malabaricus, but the plates in which he confided are now known to be faulty in that very particular.
Plants indeed have occasionally abortive stamens in one flower and barren pistils in another, and the Plantain-tree, Musa, is described by Linnæus as having five out of its six stamens perfected in such blossoms as ripen no fruit, while those with a fertile germen contain only a single ripe stamen, five being ineffective. This only shews the resources, the wisdom, and the infinite variety of the creation. When the roots are luxuriantly prolific, the flowers are in some measure defective, Nature, relaxing as it were from her usual solicitude, and allowing her children to repose, and indulge in the abundance of good things about them. But when want threatens, she instantly takes the alarm; all her energies are exerted to secure the future progeny, even at the hazard of the parent stock, and to send them abroad to colonise more favourable situations.
