EXPLANATION OF TERMS 



connecting the ovary with the stigma, and it may be absent 

 without impairing the pistil. The stigma is a knob or head, 

 sticky and porous, at the tip of the pistil. 



Stamens surround the pistil in one or more circles. There 

 are two parts to a stamen, the anther, and its stalk or fila- 

 ment. The anther is a double sac (generally) in which 

 pollen grains are borne, kept while they are growing, and 

 set free by some sort of an opening, as a slit or chink, when 

 they are mature. A pollen grain is conducted to a stigma 

 by an insect or in some other way, falls upon the rough, 

 porous surface of that organ, is nourished by it, grows, sends 

 a branchlet, a tiny thread, down the style into the ovary where 

 the ovules lie. By changes in structure the ovules are convert- 

 ed into true seeds which are for the propagation of the plant. 



These are the essential organs of a flower, and no seed can 

 be produced without their union with one another. 



in 



WILD GERANIUM (GERANIUM MACULATUM) 



a. Stamens; b. Pistil; p. Petals; 5. Sepals; d. Pedicel; c. Peduncle 



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