Crocuses 27 



Inside the baby seed is another little globe or 

 sac filled with colorless jelly the " macrospore " 

 or embryo-sac. The pollen-tube pushes its way 

 downward till it touches and pierces this little 

 globe. Then part of the drop of jelly which has 

 filled the pollen-grain or microspore enters the 

 macrospore and fuses with its jelly, and when this 

 union takes place the purpose for which the blos- 

 som blew has been achieved. From the fusion of 

 microspore and macrospore comes life, or rather 

 the possibility of life, for from their united sub- 

 stance Nature begins to mould and build a tiny 

 plant within the young seed. 



The time which elapses between the first touch 

 of the microspore upon the stigmatic surface and 

 the quickening of the seed that is to be, varies 

 greatly in flowers of different species. The pollen- 

 tube of the crocus takes from one to three days 

 in finding its way to the macrospore. But this is 

 not because the crocus pistil is long, for in the 

 great night-blooming cereus, which has a pistil nine 

 inches in length, the pollen-tube penetrates to the 

 macrospore in a few hours, while in some flowers, 

 as in certain varieties of orchid, weeks elapse 

 while the tube is descending a very short distance. 



Each macrospore can be vitalized by the con- 



