USE OF THE PISTILS AND STAMENS. 65 



flower. The office which the stigma performs towards per- 

 fecting the fruit, is to receive the contents of the pollen, and 

 to transmit it to the germen, or ovarium, which contains tho 

 rudiments or seeds of the new plant. 



These functions appear to be performed in the following 

 manner. 



The anthers consist of many minute cells, or compartments, 

 formed by membranous partitions. At the proper season, 

 the anthers burst longitudinally, and the little capsules or ves- 

 sels above described, and called the pollen, are discharged in 

 the form of yellow dust. A grain, or many grains, of the 

 pollen, falling on the stigma, there bursts, in consequence of 

 the moisture of dew, or rain, and discharges its fluid contents. 

 This fluid is then conveyed, by means of the absorbent ves- 

 sels, or channels of the stigma, and style, to the germen, or 

 embryo seed vessel, and thus in an unknown and mysterious 

 manner, renders the seeds fertile, or prolific. These facts 

 were fully established, nearly a century ago, by the celebra- 

 ted Linnaeus, and at the present day are not denied by any 

 competent naturalist. Indeed the experiments that have been 

 instituted by various authors on this subject, prove beyond 

 all controversy, that the seeds of plants are barren, and will 

 not grow without the influence of the pollen, and that in ev- 

 ery instance where the stigma of a flower has been shielded 

 or protected from the pollen, infertility in the seed has been 

 the consequence. 



In all instances the flower is formed before the fruit, though 

 in a few cases it has appeared, even to botanists, that the fruit 

 has been formed first, especially in the Meadow Saffron, 

 (Colchicum,) and the Pine Apple, (Bromelia.) In the Meadow 

 Saffron, says Sir James E. Smith, the fruit and leaves are 

 perfected in the Spring, and the blossoms do not appear un- 

 til Autumn, but a due examination will readily ascertain, that 

 the seed bud, or germen, which is formed in the Autumn, is 

 the very same which comes to maturity in ttiQ, following 

 Spring. A pine apple, adds the same writer, was once very 

 unexpectedly cited to me as an instance of fruit being formed 

 before the flower, because the green fruit in that instance, as 

 in many others, is always fully grown before the flowers ex- 



Under what circumstances do the anthers burst and throw out the pol- 

 len ? What is said to have been the consequence when the stigma has 

 been shielded from the pollen ? Are there any instances where the frui 

 has been formed before the flower ? 

 6* 



