109 



THE FERTILIZATION OF FLOWERS, 



particularly upon the aid afforded by insects to the pro- 

 cess. The bee seeks the flower for honey, which it is 

 commonly supposed is placed there merely to afford him 

 his food. On the contrary, the honey, or rather nectar 

 for honey, correctly speaking, is the nectar of the flower 

 taken into the stomach of the bee, where it undergoes a 

 change and is then regurgitated is a sort of reward for 

 the help the bee has rendered the plant. Many, indeed 

 recent investigations show that most flowers could not be 

 fertilized, hence could produce no seeds, and consequently 

 the species would cease to exist without the help of 

 insects. The floral organs and their functions were shown 

 and illustrated by drawings upon the blackboard. The 

 stigma, or top of the central organ, the pistil, must re- 

 ceive the fine fertilizing dust, the pollen, from the stamens, 

 or the fruit or seed at the bottom of the flower cannot be 

 perfected. This dust fertilizes the ovaries in which the 

 seeds form. In some flowers the stamens and pistils are 

 quite near together, in others the pollen placed in such 

 a position that it could never reach the pistil without the 

 help of insects. The bee or insect is attracted by the 

 odor of the nectar, and in searching for it, brushes rudely 

 against the stamens and carries the pollen away upon its 

 body, and going to another flower chances to touch the 

 stigma, and so leaves it where it will fertilize the seed. 

 In the laurel the stamens are pressed within the petals 

 and only dislodged by force, when they spring out with 

 a snap and touch the pistil in the centre of the flower. 

 Insects supply this force. In some flowers the pistil, or 

 fruit-bearing organ, makes its appearance one day, and 

 withers away, and the pollen does not come until the day 

 following, quite too late to be of any use in fertilizing. 

 If all the plants of this species flowered on the same day 



