Flowers and Insects. _ 79 



another set of metamorphosed leaves. Look again 

 in the heart of the hly. 



Here we see a central column, firm, strong, and 

 large, as compared with the delicate stamens. This 

 column is formed of altered leaves, folded-in in 

 such way as to convert its swollen base into 

 a number of closed chambers ; and as the 

 pollen was budded from the inner part of 

 the transformed anther-leaf, and the spores 

 from the surface of the fern-leaf, so are the 

 little ovules or seedlets, as shown in the >^ 

 diagram, which represents a cross-section of " 

 the ovary, budded from the inner side of these 

 curled-up ovary leaves. 



Yes, this closed chamber is the ovary. 



In it lie the seed-cells, or, as they truly are, the 

 egg-cells, unable without assistance to develop into 

 a new plant. It is but the story of life told over 

 again. 



The pollen ripens, the anthers open to let it es- 

 cape, and it falls upon the stigma, or broad upper 

 end of the column leading to the ovary. This 

 column is practically hollow, and through it the 

 pollen grain reaches down to bestow its life-insuring 

 touch upon the ovule. Falling upon the stigma, the 

 pollen grain, absorbing speedily the nutriment 

 about it, grows rapidly, reaching down a slender, 

 finger-like tube, which finds its way straight to the 

 opening in the ovary, and powerfully attracted by 

 the waiting ovules, joins one of them, transferring 



