The Canadian Horticulturist. 



Fig. 548. 



are the bodies in which the seeds are found. They 

 belong to the centre of the flower. A pistil has three 

 parts, at the bottom is the ovary which becomes the 

 seed vessel. This is prolonged upward into a slender 

 body called the style. And this bears a moist, 

 generally somewhat enlarged portion, with a naked 

 roughish surface (called the stigma) Upon this 

 stigma some of the pollen, or powder from the anthers, 

 falls and sticks fast, and thus somehow enables the 

 pistils to ripen seeds that will grow. A perfect grower 

 contains both stamens and pistils, but we find some 

 plants with stamens only and others with pistils only, 

 and then two may be borne by the same plant and 

 blossom. Sometimes a blossom bearing both stamens and pistils cannot fer- 

 tilize itself, as the two mature at different times preventing self fertilization. 



Sometimes the stamens and pistils are arranged in 

 different positions in the flower. The stamens and pistils 

 always] being different lengths in each flower, the 

 honey bee, when taking the nectar, gets dusted with 

 pollen on the head, thorax or abdomen, according to 

 the height of the stamens, and when the bee visits other 

 flowers, in which the relative position of the pistil is 

 similar, the pollen comes in contact with the stigma, 

 thus bringing about cross-fertilization. The same effect 

 is brought about by many other devices. This is an 

 excellent provision of nature, just as the queen is not 

 fertilized in the hive, but flies out on the wing to pre- 

 vent the likelihood of impregnation with a drone of her 

 own blood. Again we know in the reproduction of stock on the farm, in and in 

 breeding can not be followed to a great extent or the progeny 

 lacks in vigor and is otherwise defective ; this rule applies 

 equally well to plant life. It is desirable that the pollen 

 from one flower be taken to the stigma of another, instead 

 of the pollen and stigma from the same flower coming 

 in contact. There are very many varieties in which we find 

 the anthers and pistils maturing at different times. The 

 garden nasturtium (Fig. 548 and Fig. 549) is an excellent 

 example. 



Here the nectar is contained in a long spur. When the 

 flower first opens, the style is short and the stigma immature 

 and unreceptive, the anthers also are quite unripe, but soon 



Fig. 549. 



Fig. 550. 



