Lecture XXVII. 



247 



rise within itself to the small coenocytic megagametophyte. As in 

 the Buttercup it contains eight nuclei, one of which belongs to 

 the ovum. 



When the pollen-sacs dehisce and the pollen is shed each grain 

 consists of two cells. The pollen-grains of the wild Hyacinth also 

 are carried by insects from the anthers to the stigma. There the 

 larger cell of the grain grows out and burrows into the tissue of 



FIG. 89. Scilla nutans, syncarpous ovary, transverse section, x 30. e, 

 embryo-sac ; /, fused sides of carpels ; i, integument ; /, loculus, or 

 cavity, of ovary ; w, micropyle ; w, nucellus ; 0, ovum in embryo-sac ; 

 r, mid- rib of carpel. 



the stigma and passes down through the style till it emerges in 

 one of the compartments of the ovary. From there it grows along 

 the inside of the compartment and makes its way to the micropyle 

 of an ovule. It enters and transmits the two sperm-cells formed 

 in the pollen-tube to the megagametophyte. One of these fuses 

 with the ovum and the nucleus of the other with the fusion nucleus 

 in the middle of the megagametophyte. 



