164 



EECEEATIVE SCIENCE. 



THE PISTIL 



Is fke central organ of the blossom, the seed- 

 bearer. You wiU find, indeed you must 

 have found already, the pistil much more 

 varied in form than the stamens. In the 

 buttercup it is made up of many members ; 

 in the poppy it consists, apparently, of but 

 one ; in the leguminous plants of one ; in the 

 umbellifers of two; in the rosaceans appa- 

 rently of one in some cases, of many ia 

 others. In short, there is no end to the 

 varieties of pistil, and such you wiU find the 

 case as you go on examining blossom after 

 blossom, as of course you will do. This 

 seed-bearing, seed-developing pistil is com- 

 posed of three parts — the ovary 

 or seed-vessel, the style, and the 

 stigma. Of these two are essen- 

 tial, the stigma and the seed- 

 vessel; but the style, though 

 usually present, may, apparently, 

 as in the poppy, where the stigma 



lies close upon the top of the p^^ ^^ pj^ 



ovary, be dispensed with. In- tU of prim- 

 deed, the style, like the filament ^°^«- «- ^tig- 

 of the stamen, appears to be 

 simply a mechanical addition to 

 essential parts, to fit them for their relative 

 positions in the blossom. As you will find, 

 in a future lesson, the entire plant is covered 

 with a thin skin, or epidermis, as it is called ; 

 and only at one point is this wanting, that 

 point being the stigma of the pistil, which, in- 

 stead of epidermis, is coated with a glutinous 

 matter, to which adhere the grains of pollen 

 as they are discharged from the anther. The 

 adhering grains convey to the ovules within 

 the seed-vessel the power of becoming per- 

 fect seeds, for it is a rule, seemingly without 

 exception, that if there is no poUen, no seeds 

 are formed. In the majority of plants, the 

 stamens and the pistils are found combined in 

 the same blossom ; but in some, such as the 

 lychnis, which we gathered into Handful No. 

 I., they are not only in separate blossoms, but 



ma ; b, style ; 

 ovary. 



in separate plants, perhaps widely separated. 

 Is it not a great chance that the pollen of 

 the one blossom reaches the stigma of the 

 other? If it depended on chance it would 

 be ; but He who separated the blossoms has 

 made also the provision that they do not 

 bloom in vain. Watch that bee who is 

 coming away from the stamen -bearing lychnis 

 flower, and carrying with him a golden em- 

 broidery of pollen ; why, the very next thing 

 he does is to fly ofi" to that blossom which is 

 waiting for it, and rub his spangled jacket 

 against it. Neither is it bees only which are 

 the pollen carriers, for other insects, doubt- 

 less, are equally useful : and there exist well- 

 authenticated instances of pollen thus being 

 carried many miles to its destined use. 



ce- '^ 



Fig. 42. — Diagram of a perfect flower, a a, calyelne, 

 or external whorl, of organs alternating with 6 6, 

 corolline whorl ; c c, staminal whorl, opposite caly- 

 cine divisions, alternate with corolline ; d d, pistil- 

 line whorl, opposite corolline, alternating with sta- 

 minal and calycine. 



Eemember, however, that the pollen of a 

 rose will not fertilize a wallflower, nor that 

 of a hemlock a poppy ; like must to like, and 

 that it will to like makes it needful for the 

 seed-grower and nurseryman to be very 

 careful in his way. Allied plants, such as 

 cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, etc,, do inter- 

 mingle in their fertilization, and as a conse- 

 quence a choice variety may be deteriorated 

 or lost by the flowering of other varieties of 

 the same family in its immediate neighbour- 

 hood. However, this is digression. To go 

 back to the stigma and its varied forms ; we 



