Pines and Their Kindred 209 



The companion flowers to them, from which 

 the seeds develop, are as simple as can be. No 

 one but a botanist would think of calling them 

 flowers at all. 



What is called the " female " flower of a gym- 

 nosperm is just a naked ovule — a tiny oval 

 bag of jelly fastened to a httle scale called a 

 " carpel." 



In the heart of a pea blossom there is already 

 a very small but perfectly formed pod. 



Suppose we pluck away from the pea flower 

 its calyx, corolla, and stamens, so that only this 

 tiny pod is left. Now if we split it we shall find 

 that it contains several minute peas. If we pick 

 off all these except two, the thing which remains 

 — a naked wide-open pod, with two peas — cor- 

 responds to the carpel of a cedar, yew, or pine. 



Because their ovules are not enclosed in pistils, 

 but borne on the surface of open carpels, the pine 

 tree's relations get the hard name of " gymno- 

 sperms " (naked seeds). 



The seeds, naked though they be, are hidden 

 and protected because the carpels cluster closely 

 together. 



The young cone is a spiral group of carpels, 

 each having its pair of seeds attached, and all 

 clinging to a woody axis (Fig. 57). The young 

 berry of a red cedar or juniper is a close ring of 

 carpels, with a few seeds in the middle. 



Before the pollen comes, the carpels stand a 



