SUMMER MEETING. 37 



representative. The calyx is the green, outer cup. It is the cover of 

 the unopened bud, and expands as the flower opens into five parts, or 

 «epfil8. Just within the calyx is the corolla, consisting of five pink 

 petals. This is the most conspicuous and ornamental part of the 

 flower. Just within this corolla are the essential or reproductive 

 organs. They consist of about 20 stamens and a five-parted pistil. 

 The stamens are slender filaments, surmounted each by a little sack 

 containing the pollen. These are the male organs. The pistil is the 

 central, female organ of the flower. It consists of a five-celled ovary, 

 bearing the undeveloped seeds, and five threadlike styles, arising froni 

 it, and terminating each in a fleshy surface, called the stigma. Some 

 plants do not produce both stamens and pistils in the same flower. 

 In the Indian corn the pistils are the silk at the ear, while the stamens 

 are born in the tassels at the top of the plant. Our pine trees bear 

 two classes of little cones, or flowers in spring. One kind bears the 

 stamen, and is shed off after the pollen has been produced. The 

 other bears the pistils, and, after being acted upon by the pollen of 

 the male cones, develops into the large cone from which we secure 

 the seed. Other plants like the box elder, soft maple, persimon and 

 Cottonwood bear the different sexes upon seperate individuals. This 

 is also the case with many varieties of strawberries. The ornamental 

 corolla is wanting in many flowers, so also may be the calyx. Each 

 species, however, must always produce stamens and pistils either in 

 the same or in different flowers. These, being the reproductive 

 organs of the plant, are as essential to the production of fruit and 

 seeds as are the two sexes essential to reproduction in the animal 

 kingdom. 



The existence of sex, in plants, has long been known. Vague hints 

 of it occur even in the writings of Greek and Roman authors. It was 

 not until about two hundred years ago, however, that its existence 

 became clearly defined. Ev^en then, this view was much disputed, and 

 it was not until the collection of proofs of the sexuality of plants, given 

 by Linn.eus, in 1735, that the question became a settled one. 



When it first became known that pollination in plants was a neces- 

 sity for the production of seed, very vague ideas prevailed as to how 

 the pollen was carried from the stamens to the pistils. This, at first, 

 excited little more thought than the mere idea that the pollen simply 

 fell on the pistils. When it was considered that in some cases the 

 stamens and pistils are borne on separate plants, a new question arose 

 as to how the pollen was transferred over such great distances. It 

 was found that pistillate plants, grooving at a distance from any stamen- 

 bearing plants of the same kind, frequently produced seed. The agency 



