58 NEW ZEALAND PLANTS. 
New Zealand forests are not distinguished for their brilliant flowers. 
On the contrary, most of the forest blossoms are inconspicuous and 
of a dull colour. But there are some notable exceptions. The yorthern 
and the southern ratas (Metrosideros robusta and M. lucida) bear 
multitudes of crimson blossoms. The yellow kowhai (Sophora grandi- 
flora and S. microphylla) has been fitly termed the New Zealand 
laburnum. The various species of trees known as lacebark (Hoheria 
populnea, H. sexstylosa, and H. angustifolia) are, in their season, 
dense masses of white. The kaikomako (Pennantia corymbosa) vies 
in its purity with any bridal flower. The putaputaweta (Carpodetus 
serratus) is a rival of the English may. The tawari (Izerba brexioides) 
of the Auckland upland forest is so showy that the Maoris had a 
special name, “ whakou,” for the tree when in bloom. ‘The white 
tea-tree (Leptospermum ericoides), with its multitude of white or 
pinkish flowers, quite equals the popular Spiraea Thunbergi of gardens. 
The heketara (Olearia Cunninghamii) and the rangiora (Brachy- 
glottis repanda) produce multitudes of daisy-like flowers in the spring. 
The wineberry, or makomako (Aristotelia racemosa), has distinctly 
pleasing rosy-coloured flowers. The hinau (Elaeocarpus dentatus) 
has numerous white drooping flowers. The white clematis (Clematis 
indivisa) is esteemed by all, but not always treated as it deserves, 
for its snowy blossoms (fig. 4) are frequently torn from their forest 
home only to wither. 
‘ by 
The terms “ pollination’ and “ fertilization ’’ must next be con- 
sidered. Pollination relates only to the transfer of the yellow dust 
known as “ pollen”? from the anther of the flower to the stigma, 
while fertilization denotes the actual act of fertilizing, which consists 
in the coalescing of a male and a female cell. By subsequent growth 
of this fertilized cell a tiny plant, called an “ embryo,” is formed 
within the roundish or oval body (the ovule) within which was 
situated the above-mentioned female or egg cell. The male cell, 
on the contrary, is the result of the development of a pollen-grain 
(microspore), which by means of its prolongation (the pollen-tube) 
enters the ovule and so allows fertilization to take place. The ovule 
eventually develops into a seed—+z.e., a tiny plant—surrounded, it 
may be, first by food material, and then externally by a more or 
less stout covering (the seed-coat). 
In some instances the stamens and pistil are close together on the 
same flower, and pollen and stigma are ready the one for the other 
