THE FLOWER. 49 



the rose, pink, jasmine, and heliotrope the very synonym 

 of all that is pleasant. Poisonous flowers are often dis- 

 tinguished by their disagreeable foetid odor, and by the 

 dull color of their corolla. 



Sectio]^ III. — ^^Stamens. 



109. You have been told that the flower generally con- 

 sists of two sets of envelopes, the outer termed the calyx, 

 the inner the corolla. 



110. Now within the corolla are a set of thread-like 

 organs called stamens. They consist of three 

 parts, the filament, anther, and the pollen. The 

 filament (Latin yfihtm, a thread) is the slender 

 part of the stamen supporting the anther — the 

 little knob or box on the top of the filament — 

 and which is generally divided into two lobes, 

 sometimes more. This box contains the pollen, 

 Avhich is a fine dust that is ejected from the an- 

 ther-box when it is fully matured, and is neces- 

 sary for the fertilization of the ovary. Fig. 78 is fig. 78. 

 an anther with pollen grains enlarged. 



111. To the naked eye, pollen appears only as a mass of 

 fine dust, but under the microscope the grains present us 

 with forms as various as the flowers on which they are 

 found. Here again we perceive the richness of God's 

 treasure-house of beauty, its infinite diversity, marshaled 

 into fixed rank and order by His undeviating laws, making 

 each floAverto difier from the others, but each to bear pollen 

 after its kind. The magnolia bears pollen grains which 

 look like long needle-shaped crystals of translucent white- 



109. How many envelopes has a flower generally ? 



110. What within the corolla ? Their names ? How many parts have they? 

 What is the filament ? Anther ? Pollen ? Its uses ? 



111. How do pollen grains appear under the microscope ? The magnolia ? 

 Crape myrtle ? Mallow ? 



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