42 STAMENS AWD PISTILS. 



sels, in which bodies called ovula are placed ; 

 and at its summit one or more secreting sur- 

 faces called stigmata. 



The ovula are the rudiments of seeds. 



If the fertilising powder of the pollen come 

 in contact with the stigma, the ovula in the 

 cells of the pistil are vivified, and become 

 seeds. 



Late microscopic discoveries render it al- 

 most certain that the granules of pollen are the 

 true seeds deposited in the ovula by means of 

 tubes or elongations of the skin of the hollow 

 balls of pollen — there partly developed and se- 

 cured by various coverings called integuments, 

 until the proper period and circumstances arise 

 for their farther growth in the earth — and that 

 the present idea of vivification by pollen and the 

 sexes of plants is either not correct or not pro- 

 perly understood. 



In wild plants a stigma is usually acted upon 

 only by the pollen of the stamens which belong 

 to it. 



In this case the seeds thus vivified will, when 

 sown, produce new individuals, differing very 

 little from that by which they were themselves 

 produced. 



And, therefore, wild plants are for the most 



