84. PLANT LIFE ON THE FARM. 
wheat, within the butterfly-shaped and brightly-colored 
petals of the pea or the clovers, and the yellow petals of 
the flowers of the turnip or the colza, the rape or the 
mustard, are a series of fine thread-like bodies, the 
‘¢ stamens,” varying in number, size, and arrangement in 
different flowers, but each consisting of a fine thread or 
stalk, called the “filament.” Surmounting this is a sort 
of pocket or case, called the ‘‘ anther,” containing a yel- 
low or greenish dust, which, when examined with a lens, 
is seen to be made up of separate cells or grains, called 
the pollen grains. Some idea of the number of these 
pollen grains may be gained from the calculations of Mr. 
A. S. Wilson, who estimates, from the actual counting 
of a portion, that each anther of rye contains twenty 
thousand pollen cells, five hundred thousand of which 
are needed to make up one grain in weight. A floret of 
spring wheat in like manner was found to contain six 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four grains, but, as 
the pollen grains of the wheat are larger than those of 
the rye, only three hundred and ninety thousand are - 
required to make up a grain weight. An acre of wheat 
may, it is further calculated, produce fifty pounds of 
pollen, and an acre of rye two hundred and twenty-four 
pounds. 
Within the seatianis, in most flowers with which farm- 
ers have to do, isa ‘ pistil,” consisting of a thick portion 
below, which contains the young ‘‘ovule” destined to 
become the seed, and which is usually overtopped by a 
little thread, called the “style,” whose upper end, again, 
is dilated into a “stigma.” In the case of the wheat and 
other grasses these stigmas are covered with fine white, 
silky hairs. The essential constituents of the flower, 
without which reproduction cannot be effected, are the 
pollen grains and the ovule. All other parts of the 
flower are mere accessories, and some of them are very 
