THE FLOWER 107 



rather leaflike. Each fertile scale bears on its upper sur- 

 face near the base a pair of ovules. In such flowers the 

 pistils, therefore, are not closed, and the seed throughout 

 its history is naked, i.e. exposed. Accordingly, the cone- 

 bearing trees and their relatives are designated as Gymno- 

 SPEEMS (naked seeded). 



200. The corresponding term for plants with closed 

 ovaries is Angiosperms. Angiospermous flowers will be 

 meant in this chapter unless otherwise stated. 



201. The stigma has been described as a definite portion 

 of the surface of the style, or, when the style is lacking, 

 of the ovary. When the tip of the style is enlarged in 

 a knob, or branched, or finely dissected in a plume (Fig. 

 166), it is convenient to speak of the whole organ — and 

 not merely the surface — as the stigma. 



Under the lens and even to the naked eve the stisrmatic 

 surface is distinguished by a granular texture and often 

 by a viscid secretion, designed to secure the pollen grains 

 which fall upon.it or are brought to it. 



202. For the ovules are not the sole conceptacles of 

 racial life as it is passed onward from one generation to 

 the next. Other and simpler bodies produced in the 

 flower are equally freighted with inheritance, namely, the 

 individual pollen grains, emitted in multitudes as yellow 

 dust by the floral or- 

 gans standing around 

 the pistil or pistils. 

 Each " grain " viewed 



, 1+1 • l"i2- Various forms of pollen, magnified, 



tnrOUgll tne microscope illustrating the manner in which the 



is seen to be a spherical ^all is sculptured in different species 



, . of plants, 

 body {h ig. Ibb) — m 



many cases, however, elongated or otherwise modified — 

 of the simplest description as regards structure. It con- 

 sists of a minute portion of living substance of jellylike 

 consistency, surrounded by a tough elastic coat or wall. 

 As will shortly be seen, this body is capable of growth, 

 and plays an equally important part with the ovule in the 

 reproduction of plants. 



