THE STRUCTURE OF THE FLOWER 



219 



COROLLA 



PISTIL 



Snapdragon. 



produced by the stamens and to carry it to the pistils of 

 other poppy flowers. 



The sepals as a whole form the calyx and the petals as a 

 whole form the corolla. Each stamen consists of a slender 

 thread-like stem called 

 the filament, and a larger z?^ '^s^ 

 bag-like part at the end 

 called the anther. 



Each pistil in a typi- 

 cal flower consists of a 

 basal part called the 

 ovary, within which are 

 tiny ovules that develop 

 into seeds; a middle part 

 called the style, and an 



end part called the stigma. The tiny pollen grains 

 are carried to the stigma by the bees, and each pollen 

 grain sends down through the style a curious pollen- 

 tube that fertilizes the ovule and causes it to develop 

 into a seed. 



In the annual flowers there are many modifications 

 of the comparatively simple flower structure of the poppy. 

 One of the commonest of these is the union of the petals 

 into a single corolla, as in the case of the familiar snap- 

 dragon. Such combinations of the parts of the flower 

 generally indicate that there are special methods to induce 

 pollination by insects, as you may readily see if you will ex- 

 amine a snapdragon blossom carefully. 



The beautiful Madonna Lily may serve as an illustration 

 of a large number of our most popular flowers in which the 

 sepals and the petals closely resemble one another, and are 



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