Blossom and Seed 20 1 



sends out its tube, or sometimes several tubes, in the 

 most business-like manner, and with the most precise 

 and definite aim. The object is to reach one of the 

 ovules below, and to do this the tube, in many cases of 

 more than hair-like fineness, pierces its way downwards 

 through the stalk of the pistil, and makes straight for 

 its aim with unerring exactness, entering one of the 

 ovules by an opening in it which exists for this 

 purpose. 



Sometimes the tube may take months to reach the 

 ovule, but more usually it accomplishes its purpose in a 

 few days or hours. As soon as it has made its way into 

 the ovule, it begins to pass into it the fluid contents of 

 the pollen-grain, and the ovule begins to grow. 



But the ovule does more than grow, it acquires a new 

 character. At first it was a mere speck of matter, con- 

 taining a germ-cell, indeed, but no germ, no rudi- 

 mentary or embryo plantlet, such as one may see on 

 splitting open a bean, pea, nut, or any other seed large 

 enough for the purpose. The tube sent out by the 

 pollen-grain enters the ovule, and the germ is developed 

 and vivified by the liquid which passes down it. The 

 seed, which before was unfertile, and could never have 

 germinated and produced a plant, is now fertilized, 

 made fruitful, and if allowed to come to maturity it will 

 be capable of producing a plant like that by which it is 

 borne. 



It is quite possible in certain cases for ovules to grow 

 and even to attain the size of seeds without being seeds, 

 without having within them any living germ capable of 

 independent life and growth. For each ovule is at- 

 tached to the walls of its nursery, as one may see by 

 looking at the peas in a pod, and is fed from the leaves. 



