112 SOILS AND PLANT LIFE 



(2) Enough pollen produced to allow for enormous 

 waste. A single corn plant may produce as many as 

 fifty thousand pollen grains. Scarcely one in a thousand 

 reaches the stigma of a flower. 



Courusj/ Joua -Stalt Colttgt'. 



Fig. 36. — Bees in clover blossoms. 



(3) Dry, powdery pollen which floats easily in the air. 



(4) Flowers for the most part on top of the stalk or 

 stem where they are exposed to the wind. 



(5) Stigmas in the form of feathers, as in Figure 35, or 

 like the silks of corn. Both of these easilj' catch the 

 drifting pollen. 



89. What happens after the Pollen reaches the Stigma. 

 — As we have said, pollination is the flrst .step in the forma- 

 tion of seed after the flower has opened. 



