HOW PLANTS MABBY. 



87 



by a flower is a mass of red or yellow petals, 

 conspicuously arranged about the true floral 

 organs. The petals form, in point of fact, the 

 popular notion of a flower though from the 

 point of view of science they are comparatively un- 

 important, and are 

 commonly spoken 

 of (with the calyx) 

 as "the floral en- 

 velopes." It is the 

 stamens and pistils 

 (or carpels) that are 

 the true flowers ; 

 they do the mass of 

 the real work ; and 

 an enormous num- 

 ber of flowers pos- 

 sess these organs 

 alone, without any 

 conspicuous petals 

 or other coloured 

 surfaces. 



However, if you 

 take a pretty garden 

 flower (say a scarlet 

 geranium) as a typi- 

 cal example, and 

 begin to examine it 

 from the centre out- FIG. 16. GRAINS OF POLLEN, VERY 

 ward (which is the MUCH MAGNIFIED, SENDING OUT 

 truest way), you LLE-TUBEB. 

 will find it consists of the following parts, in the 

 following order : 



In the very centre of all comes the pistil, 



