EFFORT AND ACCOMPLISHMENT 201 



ward, around, and upward, till, with unerring aim, 

 it strikes a little opening in the ovary, called the 

 micropyle, or little door, and enters there. Com- 

 munication thus being established between the pol- 

 len-grain above and the ovule below, the vital cells 

 contained in the former flow down the slender 

 pollen-tube, enter the ovule and give it the touch 

 of life which it requires. This last step of the 

 journey is now correctly termed "fertilisation," 

 and all of our previous explanations and descrip- 

 tions had but to do with the pollination. The 

 ovule, now vitalised, divides its cell tissues into 

 one or more nuclei, and sets apart a portion 

 for a food reserve with which to nourish the 

 future plant. At this stage the pollen may dry, 

 and the flower may fade, but the ovule will pro- 

 ceed to develop into a seed, with all its hope and 

 promise of a new life. 



Ordinarily, the pollen-tube has to 

 traverse a considerable distance through 

 the length of a stigma, more or less 

 elongated, but, in the case of the gym- 

 nosperms, as we have already explained, 

 the pollen-grain alights directly at the 

 opening of the ovule, is caught there 

 by a drop of moisture, and is drawn 

 OF PINE mto the openmg and germmates witnm, 



