— 89 — 



er orange, approacliing scarlet for the upper, tlie aspect of 

 the flower is most striking and beautiful. 



*' The pistil extending from the top of the ovary, has thus 

 become the lower portion of the flowei-, and had the styled 

 continued to stretch in the du'ection taken when the petala 

 covered the organs, the stigma would have been so placed 

 that it would have been impossible, — there is nothing 

 impossible in N"ature, — at least less easy for the pollen to 

 have attached itself. Bat the style turns upwards, while the 

 stamens stretch outwards, so that with a graceful curve 

 the stigma is placed on a level with the anthers, and in such a 

 position that the winds from any quarter cannot fail to blow 

 the pollen where it is needed for the purpose of reproduction. 

 " The pollen dust is now very abundant, dyeing the fingers 

 yellow when the anther is touched, and forming little heaps 

 on the object glass when it is desired to examine it micros- 

 copically. The form of the grain is a sharper oval than an 

 egg of a dimension or of a minuteness which it is exceed- 

 ingly difficult to calculate. The sutui-e which was seen in 

 the unripe grain can be detected as a band of lighter colour 

 across the face of the more compact perfect grain. Exami- 

 ed in the same manner the stigma presents the appea- 

 rance of a grotto of silver and crystal, and as we look we 

 observe that a pollen grain, poised by the centre, has been 

 canght on one of these rich globules. 



" So blooms the flower in all its brilliance for the few days 

 of its maturity, and the purpose for which it was called into 

 existence having been served (let us hope not ineffectually m 

 our case, in directing our thoughts from what is all beauty 

 and mystery to HiM who made and sustained all) the leaves 

 change their yellow tod diimsou to a more sdmbre uniform 



