12 The Bee People. 
When it gets ripe it gets sticky. If any 
pollen touches it, the pollen sticks fast. If 
you take away the petals and the anthers 
and their stems from the lily, this is what 
you will have left. 
You see it is the stigma and its long 
stem, and there is another knob at the other 
end of the stem opposite the stigma. This 
other knob is hollow. It is a seed-cup and 
is filled with seeds. The seeds cannot 
grow without pollen. 
If the pollen gets on the stigma, then all 
goes well. The sticky stigma holds it fast. 
It finds its way down through the long 
stem to the little seeds. It nourishes them, 
and they grow. But if the pollen does not 
come, the seeds die. : 
Flowers do not like their own pollen. 
One lily prefers the pollen from another lily. 
It is better for the seeds. But how get 
this pollen ? 
Why, ask the hairy-coated bees to bring 
it, to be sure. 
