Objects for the Microscope. 27 



a very thin section of the pistil, and lift it with a fine sable 

 brush on to a slide in a drop of water, and cover as usual 

 with thin glass ; focus carefully, have good light, and you 

 will see the pollen-tubes actually descending the tissue of 

 the style. 



Now we are considering a great mystery. We see how 

 varied are the lengths of styles and pistils, yet shorter or 

 longer the pollen-tube stops not until it reaches the ovary, 

 and when there, amidst the many rows of ovules, in many 

 positions, it has to seek the one spot in each ovule by 

 which alone it can enter, and there, and there only, it rests. 

 Perhaps all but one have been fertilised, and are closed it 

 seeks that one and perfects the work. Thus we see the 

 all-directing, all-sustaining, life-giving power of the Omni- 

 present one ; we see His presence in the tiniest flower. He 

 alone knoweth how this may be, we only see that it is so ; 

 and reverently let us ever search into the mysteries of crea- 

 tion, and find new and deep delight in these revelations of 

 His secret order, wisdom, and care for the preservation 

 even of the flower of the field. 



STAMENS. 



The shapes of stamens are also to be noticed. Some 

 open lengthwise, some across ; some have valves like fold- 

 ing doors, flying upward, as in the laurel tribe. The 

 anthers of the barberry are on jointed filaments, which are 

 exceedingly irritable, and, if touched by the smallest insect, 

 spring up and scatter the pollen on the pistil. 



Euphorbia, or spurge, a common weed in every garden, 

 has a pistil which hangs outward and downward, appa- 

 rently out of reach of the pollen. The anthers rise up and 

 shoot it out like little guns, one after the other, at the 

 stigma of the flower. 



Nettles also have beautiful elastic filaments for scattering 

 the pollen on the pistil, which is in a separate flower. 

 Many plants have these organs thus separated, but pro- 

 vision is ever made for their union, as in the case of our 

 cucumbers, where bees and flies carry the pollen from one 

 flower to the other. 



