THE PATH OF EVOLUTION 



are protected by the inner petals of the Corolla. In 

 wet weather or at nightfall one or more of them 

 close firmly around the stamens, if the anthers are 

 nearly ripe. In the same manner they protect the 

 stigma until ready for its functions. The bell-shaped 

 flowers then bend down more deeply, so as to offer 

 their narrow base to the storm, and thus shelter their 

 contents from the rain. The pollen must finally be 

 brought in juxtaposition with the stigma ; when the 

 moist surface thereof causes the rupture of the 

 pollen cell ; or the contents thereof, the fovilla, escape 

 wrapped in the long, minute tubular protrusions of 

 the intine, thus affecting the union of the two plas- 

 modia, the fovilla being transmitted through the 

 plasma of the style and by the enclosed Placenta to 

 the ovula, which slowly grow and ripen." * 



After fertilization the anthers and stigma wither 

 and decay; the petals fall and the calyx, if remaining, 

 changes its form ; the fruit, as the entire maturing 

 ovary is now called, varies much, as is well known, 

 in its nature. In such fruits as the apple, goose- 

 berry, etc., it consists of a development of the Calyx 

 and Ovary only. In that of the Hazel and the Oak 

 it consists of the ovary, calyx and the Bracts (or the 

 leaves partly developed into the calyx, below the 

 latter). The pulpy matter in apples, pears and similar 



* J. H. Balfour, Ency. Brit, 187T, 

 264 



