28 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 



tents of one single tube, so but one microspore is 

 necessary to the development of a seed. 



But Nature provides the golden dust in lavish 

 profusion. It has been estimated that twenty 

 thousand grains are contained in one single stamen 

 of a peony, and some stamens yield the vitalizing 

 powder in even greater abundance. 



This is because Nature must provide microspores 

 enough to meet the needs of all the macrospores 

 in all the flowers that blow, after an enormous 

 amount of the precious powder has been wasted. 



Some blows away, some is washed earthward by 

 rain or dew, some is eaten by ants and other 

 crawling intruders, much is gathered by the bees,* 

 to be made into *' bee-bread," and many grains 

 are dropped by flying insects, before the pistil of 

 a sister blossom has been reached. 



The use of pollen in the floral economy was 

 suspected, at least in the case of certain blos- 

 soms, even in classic times. And the fact that 

 the pollen-grain must give of its substance to the 

 pistil before the seed can be vitalized has been 

 known for two centuries. But only in recent 

 times have Nature-students made a discovery 

 which casts a flood of light upon the mysteries 

 of the flowers, and it is this: The macrospore in 



