Blossom and Seed 



7 



grain, it remains lifeless, and sooner or later shrivels and 

 perishes. 



The quantity of pollen prepared and needed for the 

 ovules varies very greatly in different plants. The violet, 

 for instance, produces about a hundred grains in each blos- 

 som, and the poppy more than three million and a half. 

 Some ovules need only two or three grains of pollen to 

 quicken them, and others several; some of the foreign 

 orchids bear as many as seventy-four million seeds, and 

 though they are very small, each seed requires the con- 

 tents of about twenty grains of pollen to fertilize it; so 

 that the quantity produced is necessarily very large. 

 Moreover, a good deal more is required than the plant 

 itself needs, as a considerable margin must be allowed for 

 waste, some being blown away by the wind, some washed 

 away by rain, and not a little consumed by bees and other 

 insects. 



Since the pistil with its sticky tip stands in the middle 

 of the blossom all ready to catch and hold fast the pollen 

 which is discharged by the surrounding dust-spikes, it 

 would seem that there could be little difficulty about the 

 matter, and that stamens and pistils might safely be left 

 to manage it without help. But there are various obsta- 

 cles in the way of this apparently simple arrangement. 



In the first place, even though stamens and pistil be 

 most conveniently placed, as it might seem, for the very 

 purpose of giving and receiving pollen, it does not follow 

 that they are so. For where is the use of their being 

 within easy reach of one another if they are not both 

 ready to act at the same time.? And this is a thing which 

 happens very frequently indeed. Sometimes the pistil is 

 ready first; its tip is unfolded and sticky, and waiting for 



