LIFE OF A PLANT 
the same flowers. The Hop, Nettle, and Date 
Palm are one-sex plants. Maize has flowers 
of different sexes on the same stem. . 
Flowers are the reproductive organs. In 
the blossom of the Bean, the stamens are the 
male organs and the pistil is the female organ. 
The stamens produce dust-like pollen which 
is conveyed by the wind to the pistil of some 
other flower. Pollen grains deposited on the 
stigma of the pistil are held there by a sticky 
secretion until they can grow a long tube which 
travels down the style, eventually reaching and 
fertilizing the tiny ovules or eggs. 
The ovules then develop into seeds and the 
pistil grows into a pod, on both of which the 
parent plant bends all its energies to give a good 
start in the world. 
The cycle is now complete. We have another 
Bean and are back to where we started, ready 
for some other fellow to plant the new Bean 
and perform the experiment all over again. 
This is the story in brief, but there are many 
other details. The different plants have in- 
vented and perfected all kinds of devices to 
secure the effective propagation of the race. 
[35] 
