FUNCTIONS OF THE STAMENS. 29 



plete flowers ; the calyx outermost, generally green and inconspicuous ; 

 then the corolla, usually coloured and radiant ; then the stamens ; and, 

 in the midst of all, the pistil. It rarely happens that anything is 

 added : when an extra part is present, it is generally a special honey- 

 cup or "nectary." Remarkably beautiful instances occur in the grass 

 of Parnassus, already mentioned, and in the purple monkshood, where 

 the nectaries resemble two little birds. The passion-flower is adorned 

 with a splendid supplementary crown of rays, and the narcissus with 

 an inner corolla, which encircles the slamens like a frill. 



As soon as the flower has attained its full development, and shines in 

 the sweet perfection of its beauty, the anthers open, and their pollen is 

 conveyed over to the stigma. How this is effected, is not yet known, 

 or at least very imperfectly. Insects have been supposed to aid the 

 process, and no doubt they do in some slight degree ; the wafting of 

 the air may also give a little assistance ; perhaps there is some kind 

 of attractive power in the stigma, which draws the particles of pollen 

 towards it as soon as they come within its sphere, as a magnet draws 

 the atoms of steel-filings, only that in the flower it is vital force 

 instead of physical. Generally speaking, it must be regarded as one 

 of those interesting mysteries which are reserved for the pleasure of 

 future ages. For nature takes her own time to reveal her secrets, not 

 telling them all at once, nor to a single generation, even to the most 

 diligently observant, but a few to one, a few to another, alluring us 

 no less with her riddles than her smiles. Numberless contrivances 

 are met with in difierent flowers calculated to facilitate the process, 

 such as power to spring forwards on the part of the stamens, greater 

 length of the pistil in pendulous flowers, and of the stamens in upright 

 ones, both circumstances enabling gravitation to come into play, — 

 and presenting, in their aggregate, some of the most captivating 

 examples of the Divine adaptation of means to end anywhere to be 

 found in nature. The passage being accomplished, after awhile a 

 fine thread of semi-fluid matter exudes from the end of the pollen- 

 grain, and pushes its way through the style into the ovary, where it 

 enters an ovule, fertilizing it with power to ripen into a seed. The 

 petals and stamens, along with the style and stigma, and usually the 

 calyx, then wither more or less completely ; the ovary alone remains, 

 swelling fast, and gradually enlarging into the fruit. Every nut, and 

 every berry, whatever its kind, was once the ovary of a flower, and 

 every seed once a microscopic ovule. The calyx and corolla serve 

 simply to guard and shelter the stamens and pistils. They play no 



