THE WILD ROSE 163 



to a little green apple, which it much resembles. 

 We will open one of these cups — a large one. 

 Inside we find a number of shining yellow seeds. 

 They form a circle around the inside of the cup. 

 All are closely packed together. The outer seeds 

 are rounded on the outside. There is no definite 

 number of sides to each seed, they differ consid- 

 erably in shape, and we find, too, some seeds that 

 seem to be dried up. Why is this? We will go 

 back a little. The children have noticed that when 

 they touched the stamens, pollen covered the tip of 

 the finger. The little pollen sacks have burst and 

 the pollen is free. Much of it falls on the little 

 green cushion in the center of the flower. By 

 opening one of the smaller cups it will be seen 

 that this cushion is the feathery top of many 

 small styles which reach down to the seeds. The 

 pollen touches a little seed and says, "Wake up 

 and grow," and the seed obeys. The ovules that 

 did not develop into seeds failed to receive the 

 message, so they did not grow. The petals need 

 to guard the pollen that its seed children may 

 thrive. How does the closing of the rose at night 

 help? Why is it well that the petals are so deli- 

 cate on the upper side? 



