246 SENECIO VULGARIS. 



interchange of reproductive agency. If we examine the capitu- 

 lum with a pocket-lens, we shall observe that in some of the 

 florets the pistils have protruded, whilst in others they are still 

 lying in the close embrace of the stamens. In fact, the pistils and 

 stamens of each floret do not mature simultaneously. The cloven 

 summits of florets A and B are not ready to be impregnated with 

 the pollen they have been bearing aloft ; they are simply carrying 

 the pollen-grains to fertilise the stigma of floret C. The pistil of 

 floret C has previously risen and scattered its pollen-grains on the 

 already matured stigmas of other florets ; and so the poUen-grains 

 of floret B fall upon the matured stigma of floret C, and impreg- 

 nation ensues. 



The upper surfaces of the summits of the pistils are alone 

 stigmatic ; that is, they are furnished with the viscid substance 

 which causes the poflen-tubes to grow, and pass down the style to 

 fertilise the contents of the ovary. 



The study of this very common wild flower has well repaid me 

 for the time spent upon it — and none of our readers need be at a 

 loss to find microscopical profit and pleasure— if he wiU only take 

 up one of our commonest weeds, and work out, with the aid of 

 the microscope, its Hfe-history ; let him not perplex himself by 

 hunting up ah the literature that may have been written on the 

 subject, but take pocket-lens and needles, and set to work. 

 Mount as microscopical objects every conceivable portion, and by 

 the aid of the camera lucida make careful and accurate drawings 

 of the same. He will then be able to say with Coleridge : — 



" Nature ne'er deserts the wise and pure ; 

 No plot so narrow, be but Nature there ; 

 No waste so vacant, but may well employ 

 Each faculty of sense, and keep the heart 

 Awake to love and beauty." 



