10 



FLOWER-LAND. 



Fig. 7. 

 A" Pistil, 



at the top, as in the stamens, in the pistil they are at 



the bottom. (Fig. 7.) 



Sometimes a stalk springs from them 

 which is divided, knobbed, or thickened at 

 the top. But with the pistils, as with the 

 stamens, there is a great difference both in 

 shape and size in different kinds of flowers. 

 Here in the buttercup you can see the 

 pistil, with its many bags, right in the 



middle of the flower, and surrounded by the stamens ; 



just as the stamens are inside the corolla, and the 



corolla is inside the calyx. 



If you have a primrose, we can find in it a good 



specimen of a pistil. First I pull off the corolla; it 



comes away easily enough ; and now if you look into 



the calyx, you can see the knobbed top of the pistil. 



Let us see more of it. Carefully tear away the calyx 



from the stalk without injuring the pistil, and you see 



it all the little round green bag at the bottom, and 



from it the slender knobbed 



stalk like a green and tender pin. 

 It is in this little bag of the 



pistil that the seeds of plants are 



formed ; and if you break this one 



open, you will very likely find 



some little green things inside it 



which will gradually ripen into 



seeds. So also in the pistil bags 



Of an old buttercup flower. If rolla removed 



stamens ; /;?, pistil. 



when you get home you can get 



