TBE BEGINNER'S GARDEN BOOK 



of little stalks, called filaments, on which are fixed heavier 

 parts, called the anthers. The anthers make a fine dust, 

 called pollen, which the wind or the bees can carry 

 about. 



The stamens are ranged in the middle of the blossom, 

 around the pistil or pistils, the second important part. A 

 pistil is a stalk, with a somewhat sticky tip, and a hollow base 

 called the ovary, which may be translated egg-holder, or 

 seed vessel. 



The scent of the flower, and its nectar, from which bees 

 make honey, serve to attract insects, and these carry the 

 pollen from flower to flower. 



This description suits very well a flower that is regular in 

 form, such as a Shirley poppy. Here you can see at once the 



various parts : the calyx 

 below, the delicate and 

 beautiful corolla, the 

 stamens in their circle, 

 adding greatly to the 

 beauty of the flower, 

 and in the middle the 

 pistil. But as soon as 

 you find a double blossom, such as one of the double poppies ; 

 or when you see an irregular flower, such as the nasturtium 

 or sweet pea ; or when you study a compound flower, such 

 as the daisy or the scabiosa, then the parts are more difficult 

 to distinguish. Nevertheless, the description is still generally 

 true, although flowers vary in innumerable ways. It may be 

 that some one part is missing ; that by having the stamens 

 and pistils on different blossoms, two flowers are needed to 

 do the work of one (as in the corn and some strawberries) ; 

 or that the flower is so changed in looks as scarcely to seem 

 a flower at all. Nevertheless, there will always be at least 



Fig. 3. — Many of the pistils of this ear 

 of corn received no pollen. 



