REPRODUCTION OF PLANTS. 87 



plants at very different times, in some for in- 

 stance, in the first, in others in the second year 

 of their existence, a process occurs by which 

 that contact between the pollen (59) and the 

 stigma (60) takes place, which in all the phane- 

 rogamic plants is absolutely essential to the re- 

 production of the species by seed. This con- 

 tact or impregnation is thus effected. " The 

 pollen emits a tube of extreme delicacy, which 

 pierces the stigma and style, and passing down- 

 wards into the ovary," * thus reaches the ovule. 

 The result of this process is the gradual deve- 

 lopment of the embryo which becomes the fruit : 

 or, in other words, the pistil, after this impreg- 

 nation, arrives at maturity, and the ovary of 

 the pistil becomes the pericarp of the fruit. 

 This main fact remains in all cases unaltered, 

 though in consequence of the non-development 

 or obliteration of some of the parts, the identity 

 of the fruit with the original pistil is sometimes 

 difficult to recognize. Various names have been 

 applied to fruits according to their form, nature, 

 &c. All, however, are receptacles for the seed, 

 which is the perfect state of the ovule, as the 

 fruit generally, is of the pistil. 



* Lindley's " Elements of Botany," p. 56. 



