390 Report op the Horticultural Department of the 



stamens and the pistil. The stamens, st, Fig. 12, many in 

 number, are next to the petals. They are thread like organs 

 tipped with minute yellow sace which are filled with a very fine 

 yellow powder, the pollen. The pistil, p. Fig. 12, and p, Fig. 13, 

 is in this ease a compound one. It occupies the very center of 

 the flower. It is united below and separates above into five 

 green threads, which are known as styles. The enlarged tip of 

 the style is given a separate name, the stigma, and its rough, 

 sticky surface is known as the stigmatic surface, s. Fig. 12, and s, 

 Fig. 13. Figure 13 gives the appearance of the flower with the 

 petals and stamens cu-t off so that the parts of the pistil may be 

 readily distinguished. 



The part which finally develops into fruit, o, Fig. 12, and o. 

 Fig. 13, called the ovary, has within the little egg cells called 

 ovules, ov, Fig. 12, and ov, Fig. 13, which if the fruit sets, develop 

 into the seeds. If a typical ripe apple be examined five cavities 

 will be found in the core, each with two seeds. Likewise the 

 center of the ovary has five cavities each with the two ovules 

 ready to develop into seeds should they become fertilized, and 

 each directly connected with the particular one of the five styles 

 which is immediately above it. The stamens may be called the 

 male organs of the flower; the pistil, the female. In order that 

 the ovules may become fertilized the pollen which is produced 

 by the stamens must in some way reach the stigmatic surface of 

 the pistil. The pollen may be brought to the pistil by insects 

 which pass from flower to flower, or it may reach it in some other 

 way. The stigmatic surface of the pistil, when it is ready for 

 the pollen, becomes covered with a sticky fluid which easily 

 holds any of the pollen that happens to touch it. Within a few 

 hours after the pollen reaches the stigmatic surface under favor- 

 able conditions, it sprouts and sends out a pollen tube in a way 

 somewhat analogous to the sprouting of grain in warm, moist 

 fioil. Figs. 14 and 15 illustrate the germination of some 

 Amaryllis pollen. The pollen tube grows downward through 

 the soft tissues of the style till it reaches the ovule. From the 

 pollen tube there then passes into the ovule a substance which 



