118 Flowering and Us Results. 



elastic vapor. This is seen in fig. 12 ; A, the pollen under the 

 microscope; B, the elastic vapor discharging from it. The 

 active motion exhibited in the minute particles while in this 

 state has given rise to a great number of foolish theories. It is 

 a mere mechanical motion owing to the absorption of the water. 

 Dr. Martyn Paine observed, that " microscopical deceptions and 

 microscopical phenomena have become technical terms among 

 those that employ this instrument most." Mr. Hunter states, 

 that " as the naked eye, when viewing an object rather too small 

 for it, is not to be trusted, it is much less to be depended on, 

 when viewing an object infinitely smaller, brought to the same 

 magnitude by a glass." 



Flint says, that nothing is more charming than this diffusion 

 in the fructification of our maize, the most beautiful vegetation 

 that any country can offer. When the southwest breeze whis- 

 pers, and a slight humidity inspires a voluptuous languor, in 

 riding by these noble fields of maize, the pollen floats along the 

 forest spikes, like a delicious shower of aroma, with a fragrance 

 more delightful than ever breezed from the spicy fields of Araby 

 the blest. Then the different kinds growing near each other are 

 intermixed upon the same ear. What is called the silk of the 

 ear conveys the pollen to the kernel and fructifies it. Where 

 there is not a silken thread to convey the pollen to the kernel, it 

 will be found wanting. It is certainly a most interesting fact in 

 vegetable nature, that this dust shed by the stamen upon the 

 pistil is a necessary condition of the fecundation of plants, in 

 virtue of which they produce those seeds or eggs that reproduce 

 their kind. 



When this process of fructification is finished, every part of 

 the flower not destined to help form the fruit, withers and disap- 

 pears. Recalling to remembrance the fact of all parts of the 

 flower being in reality nothing but metamorphosed leaves, we 

 must look at the pistil as one folded inwards and united at the 

 margin ; the line formed by this union is called the ventral suture, 

 or inner seam, and always looks to the axes of the flower. In- 

 side this leaf, which is thus placed to guard them, is a number 

 of little bodies called ovules or eggs. As the fruit bears the 

 name of carpel, the covering of its germ is called a pericarp 

 As the seed enlarges, the vessel in which it was contained en- 

 larges with it, and after a time assumes the appearance of fruit. 



