Fig. 295. Diagram of the lower part of an anther, cut across above, and the upper part of a leaf, to show how the one answers to the other; the filament to petiole, the connective to midrib; the two cells to the right and left halves of the blade.
289. A simple conception of the morphological relation of an anther to a leaf is given in Fig. [295], an ideal figure, the lower part representing a stamen with the top of its anther cut away; the upper, the corresponding upper part of a leaf.
290. So anthers are generally two-celled. But as the pollen begins to form in two parts of each cell (the anterior and the posterior), sometimes these two strata are not confluent, and the anther even at maturity may be four-celled, as in Moonseed (Fig. [296]); or rather, in that case (the word cell being used for each lateral half of the organ), it is two-celled, but the cells bilocellate.
Fig. 296. Stamen of Moonseed, with anther cut across; this 4-celled, or rather 4-locellate.
Fig. 297. Stamen of Pentstemon pubescens; the two anther-cells diverging, and almost confluent.
Fig. 298. Stamen of Mallow; the anther supposed to answer to that of Fig. 297, but the cells completely confluent into one.