Male and Female 21 



They are not such as yet, however, though they 

 may later develop into seeds. They are called 

 ovules, and in each one, in the newly opened 

 flower, there is to be found an egg, a speck of 

 living substance which may later produce the 

 little plant within the seed. The egg is so 

 small that it is seen only with the aid of a 

 microscope. The swollen base of the pistil 

 is known as the ovary, the name given to the 

 part in plant or animal in which the eggs are 

 formed. 



When the term "egg" is used the average 

 person thinks first of a hen's egg or possibly of 

 some other bird's egg as the best known type. 

 But a hen's egg is really much more than a 

 simple egg; it is also a great mass of nutritive 

 material inclosed in a shell to nourish and 

 protect the Uttle chick. If a hen's egg is laid 

 on the table and allowed to stand for a few 

 minutes, and the shell is then cut open with a 

 pair of fine-pointed scissors and the portion of 

 the shell above the yolk is removed, there will 

 be seen floating on the yolk a little fleck of 

 translucent substance, like a bit of jelly (Fig. 2), 



