INTRODUCTORY. I 
called ‘‘leaves.” This perianth serves as a protection to the seed and 
pollen producing parts, and when colored also serves to attract insects, 
without the aid of which comparatively few varieties of flowers would 
produce fertile seed. 
The accompanying illustration (fig. 1) represents a flower which 
has been cut through lengthwise in order to show the generative 
organs, the petals having been left out. The cut does not represent 
any certain flower, but a flower in general. 
The male organs are represented by two stamens. These consist of 
an upper button-like part, the anther, which produces the pollen, and 
a lower stock or outer filament, 
which supports the anther. The 
right-hand anther shows on its sur- 
face the pollen grains. 
The female organ of the flower 
consists of an ovary and an upper 
part, the stigma, supported by a 
style. The ovary contains the 
ovules, each of which has two coats 
surrounding the central nucellus. 
This is the part which directly pro- Pe.2-/4 wading teand fe fevers oo The 
duces the future seed. The stigma rounding the eye-zone and the gall flowers 
is the uppermost part of the female at the bottom of the fig receptacle; b. a gall 
a i flower; c,a degenerate male flower. Grown 
organ. It is generally kept moist py £. w. Maslin. 
by a special gum-like fluid, which 
causes the grains to adhere to the stigma. The stem supporting the 
stigma is called the ‘“‘style.” Through the center of the style down 
to the funnel-shaped opening in the ovule there runs a hollow canal, 
which gives admission to the nucellus. 
In order that a flower may produce seed it is necessary that the 
pollen tubes produced by the pollen should penetrate through the 
stigma and style into the ovary. This process is called fecundation. 
The pollen grain and the cell of the ovule unite, and from their union 
the seed and the new plant are formed. 
