HARMONIES OF VEGETATION. 271 



see all the flowers turn their backs to it like so many weather- 

 cocks. 



19. As nature has entrusted the production of seed 

 to the stamens and pistils, this intention shows itself, by 

 the care which appears to be taken, to protect and 

 favour by every advantage of situation, these two essen- 

 tial parts of the flower. 



The stamens and pistils are usually lodged in the centre, the re- 

 cesses, or the labyrinths of the flower ; during their tender and im- 

 mature state, are shut up in the stalk, or sheltered in the bud ; as 

 soon as they have acquired firmness of texture sufficient to bear ex- 

 posure, and are ready to perfnrm the important task which is assigned 

 to them, they are disclosed to the light and air, by the expansion of 

 the petals ; after which, they have the effects of heat beautifully 

 modified by the structure, colour, or other particularities of the 

 corolla. 



20. Before the embryo seeds in the germen of the 

 pistil can be perfected, it is necessary that the farina or 

 pollen should come in contact with them; therefore 

 there must be a necessary point of harmony between the 

 length of the stamens and the pistils. 



Confirming this argument, it is said, in flowers which are erect, 

 the pistil is shorter than the stamen ; and the pollen, shed from the 

 anthers into the cup of the flower, is caught in its descent, by the 

 stigma or head of the pistil. When the flowers hang down, the 

 stamens on the contrary are shortest, and the pistil lengthened, so 

 that its protruded stigma receives the pollen as it drops to the 

 ground. In some cases, as in the nigella, where the styles of the 

 p ; stils are disproportionably long, they bend down their extremities 

 upon the anthers, that the necessajy approximation may be effected. 



21 . As soon as the embryo seeds are fertilized by the 

 influence of the pollen, the other parts of the flower 



