ANTHER

(Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) A hollow case, usually consisting of two parallel cells, and C(nistituting the apparatus that contains the pollen, or male part of a flower. Theoretically considered, an ANTHRAX. anther is the blade of a leaf, in a contracted state, with its two sides hollowed out and its parenchyma converted into pollen, while the midrib in a fleshy state divides the two lobes, and is called the connective. This part is sometimes highly developed, when the lobes of the anther are often placed at a distance from each other, as in Nymphaea; or it is altogether absorbed, when the lobes run together, and there is but one cell, as in Epacris. Other modifications produce other striking appearances: one lobe, for instance, disappears, and the connective is expanded into the state of a petal, as in Canna; or it is simply lengthened and distorted, as in Salvia; or, the anther remaining in its normal state, it is converted into a fleshy ma , as m Penaea; and it undergoes many similar transformations, either from the same or other causes. What is most curious about the anther, is its property of opening to discharge its pollen just at the very time when the stigma is ready to receive the influence of the latter. The cause of this sympathy between two really independent parts is supposed to consist in an emptying and drying up of the cellules forming the lining of the anther by the absorbent action of the ovary, which is imagined thus by its own efforts to bring about.an action which is nece ary to its own complete operation. The cellules lining the anther, when thus dried up, contract, and pull against certain fi ures or dehiscent lines in the valves of the anther, which give way, and so form openings by which the pollen escapes. [s. 71]