* 102 TYPES OF BRITISH PLANTS 
The stigma is moist and sticky, and the pollen-grain 
clings to it and sucks up the moisture. It has two coats, 
the outer one of which is thinner at certain definite points. 
Through one of these points the inner coat forces its 
way, and, its contents still included in the wall, it 
changes its shape into a tube and begins to bore a 
passage down the style, drawn by some marvellous 
power towards the ovary. Down and down it goes, 
searching for the ovules. In each of these ovules nature 
has prepared a small hole, known as the “ micropyle,” 
meaning “tiny gate.” The pollen-tube passes down the 
side of the ovary, and then swings up, to find the ovule’s 
tiny gate. It passes through it, and the two cells, the 
embryo-cell and the pollen-grain, combine their contents, 
and by some mysterious fashion a new life is formed. 
The seed is fertilised, and, though not yet separated from 
the parent plant, begins a life of its own, which we must 
briefly trace. 
For a short time thére is a period of rest, but soon 
we can trace the rudiments of a new plant. Much of 
the seed is occupied by a reserve of material, with which 
it may start its new life, the capital given to it by its 
parents when starting in business for itself. This is 
stored up in the cotyledons, or seed-leaves, thick and 
fleshy, which you may see excellently in the young 
Laburnum plants that start up in the spring. Beside 
these seed-leaves, one can see with a magnifying-glass 
other parts of the youthful plant within the seed. A 
tiny root and a tiny crest of the ordinary foliage leaves 
are carefully packed away, and the nourishment from 
which they may develop until they are big enough to 
fight for themselves and draw their own support from 
the soil and the atmosphere, is all ready for them in the 
