B THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



side m\' kitchen window so that ma^dDe the smooth prose 

 of everyday work will be broken up now and then b}- a 

 rip])le of poetr3\ 

 Orange, Cal. 



BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS-IV. 



POLLENATION. 



Notwithstanding the many curious and beautiful pat- 

 terns of petals and sepals that plants have evolved, it is 

 certain that for the purpose of producing seed these are 

 unnecessar}'. All any species seems to need is a set 

 of pistils to contain and nourish the young seeds, and a 

 set of stamens to furnish the pollen that quickens them 

 into life. The transference of the pollen from the stamen 

 to pistil is called poUenation, and plants have many nice 

 adjustments of parts for this purpose. 



At first glance it would seem a very simple matter for 

 a flower to become pollenated when there are plenty of 

 stamens surrounding the pistils and close to them ; and so 

 it would be if flowers were alwa3'-s pollenated by the near- 

 est stamens. But it turns out that man^- flowers are pre- 

 vented in one wa3' or another from using their own pollen. 

 For instance, there are man3' flowers in which the stamens 

 and pistils mature at different times ; that is, when the 

 stamens are shedding their pollen, the pistils in the same 

 flower have not grown sufiiciently to make use of it, or 

 vice versa. In such cases pollen must come from another 

 flower. Examples of this may be found in the holl3diock, 

 some mallows, figwort (Scrophiilaria), and many com- 

 mon flowers. Still others like the willow-herb {Epilobhim), 

 evening primrose, (Oenothera) and bell wort (Cci723panu/a) 

 all of which have united ovaries but separate stigmas, have 

 the stigmas when young folded together face to face so that 

 no near-by pollen can reach them. Later they spread out 

 read3'to receive the pollen from other flowers. In the bell- 

 wort, illustrated in Fig. 11, the essential organs of the 

 young flower are shown at a with stamens ripe but pistils 



