382 ACCOUNT or a new genus oe plants,
the flower, as well as to the disposition of vessels, this sup- position will, I conclude, appear still more improbable than that in support of which it is adduced.
A second opinion, diametrically opposite to the former, would regard the anthera of JRqfflcsia as only half a regular anthera, whose two theca? are separated by portions of the united filaments, Avhich, being produced beyond the an- therse, together form the crenated limb of the column.
This view, though less paradoxical than the first, will hardly be considered as affording so probable an explana- tion of structure as the third opinion; according to which each anthera would be regarded as complete, made up of two united thec^, opening by a common foramen, and internally subdivided into numerous vertical cells by per- sistent portions of the confluent receptacles of the pollen; a structure not perhaps essentially different from that of certain anthercC more obviously reducible to the supposed type.
Even in adopting this opinion, a question v\'ould still 216] remain respecting the limb of the column under which the antherae are inserted; namely, whether it is to be viewed as an imperfectly developed stigma, or as made up of pro- cesses of the united filaments. In support of the former supposition the nearly similar relation of the sexual organs in certain Asarince may be adduced; and in favour of the latter, not only their disposition and form in other plants of the same natural family, but also the vascular structure of the column itself; the limb deriving its vessels from branches of the same fasciculi that supply the anthera} (plate 18 (20),/. 1). If this latter view, however, of the origin of the limb were admitfed, it might be considered not altogether improbable, that even the corniculate pro- cesses of the disk of the column, each of which has a cen- tral vascular cord, are of the same nature. For if, on the other hand, these processes are to be regarded as imperfect styles or stigmata, their number and disposition would in- dicate a structure of ovarium to be found only in families to which it is not probable at least that Babesia can be nearly related, as AnnonacecB and the singular genus
�� �
