THE CONE-BEARING PLANTS 111 
the proper time, the neck of the flask dissolved away, and 
left free passage for the swimming antherozoids. Here we 
have the same flask shape, with the narrow entrance 
at the top, and the whole mass of cells that clings to 
the scale of the cone corresponds to the Fern’s inde- 
pendent prothallium, though never, in this 
case, possessed of independent life. Settled 
upon the micropyle, which is sticky, like 
the top of a ripe pistil, the pollen-grains 
send down their tubes, which find the wait- 
ing ovules and fertilise them. This fertilisa- 
tion is rather a long business, for very often 
the pollen-tube takes two years to make its 
way from the micropyle to the embryo seeds, 
lying inactive through the winter. 
In this family, the male flowers (those 
with stamens) and the female flowers (those WINGED 
with pistils) are never combined, but are ees 
grouped together in separate masses. The male flowers 
form tassels, or catkins, which disappear when they 
have shed their pollen; and the female flowers, with the 
seeds, remain on the tree, and harden into the well- 
known cones. Very often the stamens and pistils keep 
to separate trees, and in any case you will see that the 
pollen has to make a voyage of some extent. Happily 
Pines and Firs are not, like Mosses and Ferns, dependent 
on the presence of water for the conduct of the voyage, 
for they have adopted the “pollen-tube ” method, which 
allows of wider transport, and their pollen-grains are 
easily able to travel, if they can find a suitable agent. 
_ They are separate from the pistils, so cannot get to the 
seeds by simple contact, and they have no bright hues nor 
sweet honey to attract insects. There is only one carrier 
