FLOWERS 



2224 



FLOWERS 



Pollen. The powdery substance contained 

 in the anthers is called pollen, a Latin word 

 meaning fine dust. Pollen is the fertilizing 

 matter of flowers. 



Pollen grains vary greatly in size, shape and 

 markings. Some are dry and very tiny, and 

 sometimes fitted with little wings, so that 

 they are easily carried by the wind. Others 

 are covered with a sticky substance, so that 



corolla 



style- 



-anther 



discharging! 

 * pollen 



*epal 



showmy \ 

 ovute5 



PARTS OF A FLOWER 



they become attached to visiting insects. Some 

 are round; others are angular. Some are 

 smooth; others are rough. The work they do 

 is described under the title POLLEN AND POL- 

 LINATION. 



Pistil. The innermost organs are called pis- 

 tils. They are so called from their resemblance 

 to the pestle of a mortar, having a small knob 

 at the top and an enlarged portion at the 

 bottom. They are the female, or seed-bearing, 

 organs of the flower. 



Ovary and Ovules. The pistils have an en- 

 larged hollow chamber at their base, called the 

 ovary. Within that chamber are the un- 

 developed seeds, and these little eggs are called 

 ovules. 



Style. Up from the ovary extends the long, 

 tapering portion of the pistil, called the style, 

 from the Greek word for pillar. It supports a 

 knob called the stigma. When pollination has 

 taken place in a flower, pollen tubes grow down 

 through the style to meet and fertilize the 

 ovules in the ovary below. 



Stigma. At the tip of the style is the stigma, 

 an expanded knoblike or grooved surface. The 

 word stigma is from a Greek word meaning 

 mark, or blemish. When ripe, the stigma se- 

 cretes a sticky fluid or grows a coating of 

 hairs, by means of which pollen-grains are held 

 to it. These pollen-grains grow down through 

 the style and fertilize the ovules, as explained 

 above. In this way life is brought "to a 

 sleeping cell, and a seed is made from which 

 future generations of plants will spring. 



In some plants there is no style or stalk, and 

 then the stigma rests directly on the ovary. 



Variation in Flowers. Very few flowers are 

 altogether true to the type described above. 

 Often not all of the four circles are present. 



Either the calyx, or the corolla, or both, may 

 be lacking. Only stamens may be found in 

 one flower, while the pistils may be in another 

 flower on the same plant. Or all the flowers 

 on one plant may have stamens only; that is, 

 they will be the male or pollen-bearing flow- 

 era, while those of another plant of the same 

 species may have the pistils only, and be the 

 female, or seed-bearing, flowers. Some flowers 

 have all the petals the same size and same 

 shape; others have a few petals large and the 

 rest very tiny. Some flowers open during the 

 day; others, and those are usually white or 

 of pale colors, open at night. 



Every strange form or habit of a flower, 

 however, exists for a definite purpose in the 

 life of that plant. The one big necessary 

 thing in that life is the transferring of pollen 

 from stamen to pistil. It has been proved that 

 those plants grow strongest and best which are 

 from seeds which have had new characteristics 

 brought to them through the pollen from a 

 different flower on the same plant, or from 

 an entirely different plant (see CROSS-FERTIL- 

 IZATION). So the brilliant colors, the varied 

 and wonderful shapes, the markings, the 

 fragrance and the honey-bearing sacks are all 

 methods of attracting insects or birds to help 

 in Mother Nature's wonderful work of pollina- 

 tion (see BOTANY, subhead Why Plants Need 

 Insects). One of the special structures of 

 flowers and pollen-bundles to insure the repro- 

 duction of a plant is interestingly shown in the 

 life history of the orchid. 



Then, when seeds have finally been made, 

 comes the matter of putting those fertilized 

 ovules into the ground, in new surroundings, 

 to start another generation of plants. That 

 story is so long and interesting, it is told 

 farther on in these volumes under the heading 

 SEEDS. 



The Yesterday and To-day of Flowers. At 

 one time all flowers were wild, and many of 

 the beautiful varieties and forms which are 

 seen to-day did not exist. Some time in the 

 far-away past some savage woman, perhaps, 

 carried from a woodland tangle to the door 

 of her cave a gaily blossoming plant which 

 pleased her eye. There it was carefully nour- 

 ished and lovingly helped in its struggle for 

 existence, and the culture of flowers began. 

 Then, down through the centuries simple gar- 

 den plots grew into stately, well-kept flower- 

 beds on large estates, for the love of flowers 

 has passed down from generation to generation. 

 From the busy housewife, the care of flowers 



