52 FAMILIAR LESSONS IN BOTANY. 



told you that the spongioles are the development of the 

 fibrous roots ; and like these spongioles, the stigma has no 

 epidennis. They are the only parts of the entire plant not 

 furnished with that covering. It secretes a viscid fluid 

 whose office is to secure the adhesion of the pollen grains, 

 and also to furnish sufficient moisture to cause the sack to 

 burst, and the consequent expulsion of the pollen tubes. 

 Its surface is also filled with cells, through which these 

 tubes find easy entrance to the style, and thence downward 

 to the ovules in the germ, ovary. 



117. After these ovules become fertilized by the pollen 

 tubes, they begin to mature into perfect seeds, and the 

 ovary enlarges and undergoes very remarkable changes. 

 As the other parts of the flower within die, and fall off, it 

 becomes the future pericar]3 (/je/'i, around, and carjjos, fruit). 

 The apple, peach, pumpkin, acorn, in fact all that j^art of 

 fruit, nut, or berry which is not the seed, is the pericai-p, 

 and has once been the ovary. 



118. You have now had explained to you the three parts 

 constituting the stamens, the filament, anther, and pollen, 

 and their uses. The pistil also consists of three parts; 

 the germ, the style, and stigma, and also their offices. If 

 you will take the ovary of the okra, which is unusually 

 large, and can be examined without a glass, and cut it 

 longitudinally or trans versly, you can plainly see the ovules 

 arranged just as the ripened seed appear in the perfected 

 pod. These ovules have the form of seed, but present a 

 color and texture differing but little from the ovary in 

 which they are inclosed. 



119. You have now been told that the flower has a 



117. What of the fertilized ovules? Of the ovary? What does it become? 

 What i? a pericarp? 



118. Of what does the stamen consift? The pistil? What experiment is 

 suggt'Sted with the okra ? What of the color and texture of the ovules ? 



119. What have you learned about the calyx ? The corolla? What is each 

 division called ? How is the stamen divided ? WTiat does the pollen conttuu ? 

 How is the pistil divided ? What about the germ ? 



