The Flower. 95 
ering glumes— to distinguish them from the smaller and 
more delicate upper or inner palets which are just above 
and inclosed within the outer palets. Between the outer 
and inner palet, are the stamens and pistils, shown sepa- 
rately in Fig. 53. 
150. Fecundation * (fec’-un-da’-tion) is the union of the 
male and female cell by which the new plantlet is formed. 
The ovule produces within itself a female cell which must 
be fecundated by the male cell produced by the pollen (144). 
This fecundated cell then grows to form a young plant,— the 
embryo (54); and the parts of the ovule develop about it, 
the whole forming the perfect seed. Unless the ovule is 
fecundated, the seed very rarely develops. <A flower that 
contains no pistil, and hence no ovule, can of course produce 
no seed. 
151. Pollination (pol-lin-a’ tion), is the application of - 
pollen (144) to the stigma (145) — the first step in the pro- 
cess of fecundation. During a certain period, the surface 
of the stigma is moistened by the secretion of a viscid 
liquid, to which the pollen grains readily adhere. Fertile 
pollen grains, alighting on the stigma of sufficiently near- 
related plants, during this period undergo a process com- 
parable to germination, in which a slender projection 
from the pollen cell penetrates the stigma, passes length- 
wise through the center of the style and enters the ovule, 
where fecundation occurs. 
In some flowers, as in the pea, the stigma is brought into 
direct contact with the pollen by the elongation of the 
style, but in most plants, the pollen must be transferred to 
*The term fertilization, that has been commonly used for this process, tends 
to confusion, because fertilization is also applied to the addition of plant food to the 
soil. 
