CHAPTER VII 



PLANT PARTNERSHIPS 



July 



" My trees are full of songs, and flowers, and fruit, 

 Their branches spread a city to the air." 



" While the bee with cowslip bloom was wrestling." 



The production of seed is the chief object of plant 

 life. Upon this depends the continuance of the vege- 

 table world, and therefore of all animal existence. 

 From the elephant to the mouse, from the whale to 

 the minnow, from the eagle to the tomtit, life is con- 

 ditioned upon the constant return of " the herb- 

 bearing fruit whose seed is in itself." 



In every minute particular the flower is con- 

 structed to assure the production of sound seed. 

 The first form of this seed is the tiny ovule in the 

 germ. Ovules cannot grow into seeds, unless they 

 are reached and fertilized by the pollen, w^hich must 

 arrive at them by the way of the stigma. 



We owe much to those careful students wdio have, 

 by close observation and careful experiments, found 



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