218 



BOTANY. 



463. The ovule-bearing flowers consist of the well-known 

 cones which, when mature, bear the seeds (Fig. 122). The 

 cone consists of a stem bearing many leaf-like scales 

 closely crowded together, and upon these the ovules are 

 produced. Each ovule has one coat which grows up from 

 below, almost covering it; but as the ovules grow they bend 



Fia 123.— Part of a Pine-ovule, cm, the body of the ovule; to, embryo-sac filled 

 ipith endosperm, en, which contains two large cells (rudimentary archegones): 

 re, neck of archegone ; pi, pollen-tubes growing upward into necks of archegones. 

 Magnified 30 times. 



down, so that the opening through the coat comes to be 

 below (Fig. 122, A and B). 



464. The embryo-sac appears in the body of the ovule, 

 when the cone is quite small, as an enlarged cell. It soon 

 forms a mass of cells (the endosperm, or rudimentary first 

 stage) within Itself, and in this are developed one, two, or 

 more rudimentary archegones, each with its germ-cell. 



