SURROUNDINGS OF THE HOME 265 



While it is chiefly in the leaves that this food production 

 occurs, in a lesser degree it is carried on in all the green parts 

 of a plant. The energies of plants of the higher order seem 

 to be directed toward ' maturing seeds for the succeeding 

 generations of their own kind. Wherever seeds occur there 

 must have been flowers. These flowers may have been desti- 

 tute of. the showy petals we so commonly associate with the 

 thoughts of flowers, and some one or more of the other parts 

 of a complete flower may be lacking. Indeed, the study of 

 Botany has very much to do with plants that never have 

 flowers. Many of these non-flowering plants are of micro- 

 scopic size, and propagate themselves in ways other than by 

 seeds. 



Nature's provision for the scattering of seeds, and for 

 their protection till conditions favorable for growth occur, 

 is an interesting chapter in Botany. The fleshy fruits for 

 example are gathered as food by man, birds, and other ani- 

 mals, and their seeds become widely scattered. Many seeds 

 are carried long distances by winds and streams. Where 

 seeds become so thickly scattered that upon germination 

 the young plants are over-crowded, only the most vigorous 

 of the young plants survive in the struggle for existence. 

 The others will be choked and starved out, an example of the 

 " survival of the fittest" in the natural world. 



The process of fertilization of the ovules of a flower so that 

 they become seeds which will "grow" introduces us to botan- 

 ical terms that are best learned in connection with the study 

 of some flower in the laboratory. The pollen' when ripened 

 is shed from the anther in which it grew. These anthers are 

 at the outer extremities of the stamens. The pollen grains 

 as carried by winds, bees, and insects generally, may fall 

 upon the stigma of a pistil in some flower of the same kind of 

 plant. Their growth down through the style into the ovules 

 accomplishes the fertilization necessary for the develop- 



