264 LIVING THINGS IN THEIR ENVIRONMENT 



'Pollen grain 



that fertilization of the egg is about the most important 

 thing that can happen, so far as the future of the plant is 

 concerned, because it makes possible the growth of a new 



plant after the parent 

 plant is dead. You may 

 have noticed in shelling 

 peas that some pods have 

 only a few full sized peas 

 in them, the places where 

 the other peas should have 

 grown containing only 

 little green knobs. These 

 are the ovules that did 

 not get the eggs in them 

 fertilized. 



How Plants Scatter 

 Their Seeds. One other 

 thing must happen if a 

 plant is to be successful. 

 It must be able to scat- 

 ter its seeds. Plants, like 

 weeds, which produce many seeds and which have good 

 devices for getting them placed far from the parent plant 

 are the most successful ones. In the case of some of the 

 fruits which are good to eat, birds, animals, or even man 

 may eat the fruit and pass out the undigested seeds with 

 the wastes, thus giving the seeds a start in life. In some 

 parts of the country birds have planted rows of trees 

 along fences where they roosted after eating and it is no 

 uncommon thing for squirrels to plant pine or other trees 

 as they carry off the seeds to store for the winter. 



SELF-TESTING EXERCISE 



From the following list select those words which best fill the blank spaces 

 in the sentences below and arrange the words in proper numerical order. 

 A word may be used more than once. 



CccllecU 

 errvbrvo 

 Sac, 'bears 

 Several 

 nuclei- oi\e 

 rwaacrest end. 

 o/'pollen. t,ube.= 

 gg cell 



This is a section cut vertically through a 



flower and magnified under the compound 



microscope. 



