Agardh has observed a similar thing in a hyacinth, one half of the fruit of which contained seeds, and the other half, anthers. B. Clarke mentions an instance in Mathiola incana in which the carpels were disunited, and antheriferous at the margin.[326]
The passage of pistils to stamens in willows has been frequently remarked, as in Salix babylonica, silesiaca, cinerea, Caprea and nigricans. One of the most curious illustrations of this transformation in this genus is given by Henry and Macquart (Erst. Jahrb. des bot. Vereines am m. et n. Rhein., 1837). In the flowers in question the series of changes were as follows:—first, the ovary opened by a slit, and then expanded into a cup; next, anther-cells were developed on the margin of the cup, with stigmas alternating with them, the ovules at the same time disappearing; lastly, the margin became divided, and bore three perfect anthers, which in the more perfect states were raised on three filaments.
Campanula persicifolia, C. rapunculoides, and C. glomerata have been observed to present an anther surmounting the pistil.[327] Double tulips often present this change, and a like appearance has been observed in Galanthus nivalis, and Narcissus Tazetta.
Moquin mentions the existence of this condition in a female plant of maize, some of the pistils of which were wholly or partially converted into anther-like organs. Mohl has recorded an analogous malformation in Chamærops humilis, and in which the three carpels were normally formed, and only differed from natural ovaries in this, that along the two edges of the ventral suture there was a yellow thickening, which a cross section of the ovary showed to be an anther-lobe filled with pollen.[328]
In Tofieldia calyculata a similar substitution of a stamen for a carpel has been observed by Klotsch,[329] and Weber[330] gives other instances in Prunus and Pæonia. Corresponding alterations may be met with in cultivated tulips, in the cowslip and other plants. In most of the above cases the transmutation has been perfect, but in quite an equal number of cases a portion only of the carpel is thus changed, generally the style or the stigma; thus Baillon describes the stigmas of Ricinus communis as having been in one instance antheriferous.[331] Moggridge figures a flower of Ophrys insectifera in which the rostellate process was replaced by an anther.[332]
Mohl remarks that the change of pistils into stamens is more common in monocarpellary pistils than it is in those which are made up of several carpels. It seems clear that in this transformation the lobes of the anther and the development of pollen have no relation to the production of ovules.
Staminody of the accessory organs of the flower.—The scales that are met with in some plants, either as excrescences from the petals, or as imperfect representatives of stamens or other organs, are occasionally staminoid; thus the scales of Saponaria officinalis, of Silene, Nerium Oleander, the rays of Passiflora, the corona of Narcissus, have all been observed occasionally to bear anthers.[333] In the case of Narcissus the loose spongy tissue of the corona seems to have the nearest analogy to the anther-lobes, while the prolonged connective is more like the ordinary segments of the perianth in texture. The species in which this change may most frequently be observed are, N. poeticus, N. incomparabilis, and N. montanus.
M. Bureau found in some flowers of Antirrhinum majus two petal-like bodies standing up in front of, or opposite to the two petals of the upper lip,[334] and similar developments in which each of the two adventitious segments are surmounted by an anther may be met with frequently. It does not follow because these organs bear anthers that they are morphologically true stamens. They are really scales, &c., taking on themselves accidentally the characters proper to stamens.
Pistillody of the perianth.—The passage of the segments of the perianth into carpels has been observed frequently in Tulipa Gesneriana, the change in question being generally attended by a partial virescence. M. Gay is said by Moquin to have observed a flower of Crocus nudiflorus in which the segments of the perianth were cleft and fringed at the same time, so that they presented the appearance of the stigmas.