THE SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 339 



It is II well-known fact that sex is not confined to the animal kingdom alone, 

 but extends to the vegetable kingdom as well. The sexual organs of plants 

 and vegetables are located in their blossoms. The majority of plants produce 

 perfect blossoms; that is, blossoms having both stamens and pistils. But we 

 sometimes find blossoms having only stamens, or male organs, others having 

 only pistils, or female organs; and these male and female blossoms may be 

 borne on the same plant or on different plants. Some varieties of strawberries 

 are called pistillates, because their blossoms have only pistils. These straw- 

 berries will not bear fruit unless planted near those varieties whose blossoms 

 have stamens. 



The squash or pumpkin vine bears both kinds of blossoms on the same stalk, 

 soon after a squash vine has put forth runners, the blossom buds begin to 

 appear at the junction of the leaf-stalks with the vine. As the buds develop 

 the stems develop also, until they are a little longer than the leaf-stalks. The 

 blossoms now open, and we have large yellow flowers. At the center of each 

 flower is a yellow cylinder, about an inch in length, covered with fine yellow 

 pollen. These are the male flowers, and from their structure can never pro- 

 duce squashes ; their ofiice is wholly to supply pollen to fertilize the pistillate 

 blossoms. The first pistillate blossom rarely appears nearer the root than the 

 seventeenth leaf. Instead of having a long stem to support it, this flower 

 opens close down to the junction of the leaf-stalk with the vine. It has a small 

 globular formation beneath it, which is the embryo of the future squash. If 

 the structure of the blossom is examined, it will be found to differ from the 

 tall, male flower, in having the central cylinder divided at the top into several 

 parts. These are what botanists call the pistils, and it is necessary that the 

 fine yellow dust of the male flower should touch them, to fertilize them, that 

 seed may be produced and a squash grown. This may be proved by so con- 

 fining a blossom that no pollen can gain access to it, when the blossom will 

 wilt, and the embryo squash turn yellow and decay. 



When the conditions are most favorable, the flower sends out a fragrance 

 which attracts the bees. Prof. Gray calls this perfume the flowers' advertise- 

 ment. The bees instinctively read therein that they are welcome to all the 

 exuding nectar they can bear away, if they will carry the pollen on their legs 

 and bodies to the pistils. It has been suggested that honey is placed in the 

 flower to attract the bees. After a bee has fonnd honey in one flower it will be 

 very likely to examine others of a similar appearance. In the spring, when 

 the blossoms first open, many of the bees, very likely the young bees who have 

 never before seen a flower, will be seen examining the leaves, branches, and 

 even rough wood of the trunk of a tree, until they find just where the coveted 

 treasure is located. After a bee has dived deep into one blossom and tasted 

 the nectar, he knows where to look next time. It is plainly to be seen that 

 flowers were not given their briglit colors simply that we might feast our eyes 

 upon their beauty. 



Nature, who is a most careful economist, not only deals out honey in small 

 doses, but she places it in the most cunning nooks and corners, that the bee 

 may be obliged to twist himself into all possible shapes, around and among 

 the stamens, until the pollen is most surely dusted all over its body and legs. 

 Within the flowers of the barberry there is a contrivance by which on the 

 touch of the proboscis of the bee the stamens spring forward suddenly and 

 shower the insect plentifully with pollen with which it may fertilize some 

 other barberry blossom. The flower secretes no honey until the pollen is ripe 

 and ready to do its work ; then the honey slowly exudes into the nectaries, so 



