PRACTICAL POLLENATION 



sophical view of the flower to consider it as a 

 mechanism developed about the all-essential cen- 

 tral organ, the pistil. 



This, the female organ of the plant, consists, 

 in the developed form, of a basal structure, the 

 ovary, containing the ovules or embryo seeds, and 

 a more or less protuberant style at the end of 

 which is the stigma that receives the fertilizing 

 pollen. 



Considered as to its origin, the pistil is in effect 

 a modified bud. Everyone is aware that individual 

 buds of a plant may have the property of being 

 able to reproduce the entire plant. The pistil is a 

 modified bud each embryo seed of which, when 

 fertilized, has the same potentiality. 



By the most wonderful miracle of the organic 

 world, this infinitesimal structure is enabled to 

 epitomize all the possibilities of a future plant, of 

 predetermined size and form and habit. 



It differs from the bud from which it is 

 developed chiefly in that it requires to be fertilized 

 by union with a pollen cell, before it is capable of 

 taking on development; and in the further very 

 essential fact that when mature it may be cast off 

 from its original moorings and carried to any 

 distance, thus in a way making amends for the 

 limitations put upon vegetables by their inca- 

 pacity for locomotion. 



[87] 



