8o THE STORY OF THE PLANTS, 



duction of pollen ; or of one leaf or leaf-like or- 

 gan, told off for the production of young seeds 

 or ovules. Flowers as simple as that do actually 

 occur, but more often a flower is much more com- 

 plex, consisting of several stamens and several 

 carpels, as well as of other protective or attract- 

 ive leaves, often highly coloured and conspicu- 

 ous, which surround or envelop these essential 

 organs. 



The most familiar flowers, as we actually know 

 them, are of this last more complex type ; each 

 comprises in itself several male and several female 

 individuals. The male individuals are stamens^ each 

 of which generally consists of two little pollen- 

 bags, called the anthei's, and a rather slender stalk 

 or support, known as the filament. The female 

 individuals are carpels, each of which generally 

 consists of a sort of sack or folded leaf, enclosing 

 one or more tiny seeds or ovules. 



But that is not at all what you mean by a 

 flower! No; certainly not ; and half the flowers 

 you meet in a morning's walk you do not take 

 for flowers at all, and pass by unrecognised. 

 Such are the green or inconspicuous blossoms of 

 the grasses, nettles, oaks, and sedges, as well as 

 those of the pines, the dog's mercury, the spurge, 

 and the hazel. What you mean most by a flower 

 is a mass of red or yellow petals, conspicuously 

 arranged about the true floral organs. The pet- 

 als form, in point of fact, the popular notion of 

 a flower — though from the point of view of science 

 they are comparatively unimportant, and are 

 commonly spoken of (with the calyx) as "the 

 floral envelopes." It is the stamens and pistils 

 (or carpels) that are the true flowers; they do the 

 mass of the real work ; and an enormous number 



