find the stamen to consist of two parts, a thread-like or ribbon-like 

 lower portion, the filameiit, which bears at its summit a box-like part 

 known as the anther. AVithin the anther are developed small bodies, 

 rounded or angular in shape, and usually yellow or brown in color, 

 which are called the pollen grains. When the pollen grains are fully 

 ripened the anther bursts open and the pollen is set free. When you 

 walk through a field of rag-weed in the late summer the yellow powder 

 that covers your shoes is the pollen of the plant. Do not forget this 

 pollen, for it is very important, as we will find later. In the center of 

 the flo^ver a fourth circle of parts, often appearing as a single organ, 

 the pistik. Here again we must examine the part somewhat in detail. 

 In most cases the pistil is found to be made up of three parts; a 

 swollen, rounded base called the ovary, a more or less expanded sum- 

 mit known as the stigma, and a part connecting stigma and ovary 

 known as the styk If the ovary be cut across it will be found to 

 contain a number of small, round bodies, usually colorless, which are 

 known as the ovules. These ovules are the bodies which, after fertili- 

 zation, become the seeds, l^ow, the ovules can only be fertilized 

 through the agency of the pollen grains. If I wished to state the 

 matter scientificially I would say that fertilization occurred when the 

 protoplasmic contents of the pollen grain united with the protoplas- 

 mic contents of the ovule, but for our purpose perhaps the first state- 

 ment will do. It is easily seen, then, that pollen grains and ovules 

 are the parts of the flower essential to reproduction, or, in other words, 

 to the formation of the seed. We then have to seek the significance 

 of the calyx and the highly colored corolla, for they must in some 

 way be associated with the work of the plant. Let us turn for a 

 moment to some other flowers, those of the walnut tree, of the oak, 

 or of grass. Examining these, we find calyx and corolla absent or 

 much reduced, although stamens and pistils are readily made out. It 

 is very clear, then, that calyx and corolla can be and frequently are 

 dispensed with by the flower. 



After this somewhat lengthy prelude, let us see what the facts it 

 contains teach. Evidently the pollen, when liberated from the anther, 

 must in some way reach the pistil, and, having reached the pistil, its 

 protoplasmic contents must reach the ovule, which is completely en- 

 closed in the ovary. With this latter part of the process we are not 

 concerned in nature-study, but the former is of very great interest. 

 It is plain, if we examine any large number of flowers, that the rela- 

 tive positions of stamens and pistils are such that gravity will not 

 insure the falling of the pollen grain upon the stigma. We must find 

 some means, then, by which the pollen grain is transferred to the 



