24 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 
because whoever invented it had in mind the re- 
lationship which binds together all plants, from the 
humblest to the highest. 
So in the ‘‘ up-to-date’’ writings on flower-lore 
these little grains—brown or golden—are called 
‘* microspores.’’ 
Each microspore is a simple cell,—a little bag,— 
generally lined with a delicate membrane, and 
always filled with a colorless jelly. 
Under a powerful microscope the microspores of 
many flowers look as if they had been daintily 
carved, like the beads of a rosary. 
On the surfaces of very many of them there are 
tiny holes, or slits, or little lids, 
which fall off readily (Fig. 3a) and 
expose the delicate lining mem- 
brane. 
« 
The boxes, or ‘‘ anthers,’’ which 
Fic. 32.—A pollen- 
grain ofthe melon. hold the microspores of the crocus 
(From the Vegetable 
ios split open as soon as the bud 
expands and shed their golden store. The bee, 
blundering about inside the flower, gets herself well 
sprinkled, and, when she flies off, with powdered 
body, to find and visit another courageous crocus, 
she will be almost certain to rub off a few yellow 
grains upon the tip of its pistil. 
