110 SOILS AND PLANT LIFE 



first group ; yet all of our common field crops have flowers 

 of the second kind. 



Conclusion. — Write a careful description of the flowers 

 with which you have been working, naming and describ- 

 ing each part. State whether the flower is fragrant and 

 give the color of its corolla. After you have studied 

 Sections 87 and 88, complete your notes here by telling 

 whether the pollen from the flower is scattered by the wind 

 or insects, and state how you know. 



85. Parts of the Flower on Separate Plants or on 

 Different Parts of the Same Plant. — The flowers of the 

 plants we have chosen to study have all their parts to- 

 gether ; but from this it does not follow that the parts of 

 the flowers of all plants are so arranged. In the corn, 

 for instance, the tassel at the top of the stalk produces all 

 the stamens, while the ear, which is a collection of pistils, 

 is borne about midway on the stalk. Similarly, there are 

 two kinds of flowers on every pumpkin vine, — one, which 

 bears stamens and is therefore called staminate, while 

 the second one bears the pistil and is called a pistillate 

 flower. You can easily recognize the pistillate flower, 

 for at its base a small pumpkin is beginning to form. In 

 certain varieties of strawberries, all the flowers are pistil- 

 late; and unless another variety is near which bears 

 stamens, no fruit will be produced. In mulberries, per- 

 simmons and some other trees, the staminate and pis- 

 tillate flowers are borne on separate trees. 



86. How the Pollen gets from One Plant to another. — 

 Hold the ripe anthers of the petunia against the palm of the 

 hand and they will leave a purple-gray mark. If you had a 

 microscope to examine the spot, you would find it made 

 up of very many minute grains, which we call pollen. 



