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OF FLOWERING PLANTS. 65 
of the flower we usually find one or more organs, called 
the pistil or pistils. The end or edge of this organ is 
called the stigma, which is generally more or less viscid. 
It is upon this viscid stigma that the pollen falls, or is 
conveyed by insects, the wind, or other agents. Soon a 
small tubule shoots out from the pollen grain; this tubule 
grows down through the stigma and style, into the ovary, 
where it comes in contact with the unfertilized ovule, 
which is then fertilized, and becomes capable of develop- 
ing in its cavity an embryo that in time, and under favor- 
able conditions, will became a perfect plant. In by far 
the greater number of flowering plants, we find both the’ 
male and female element in the same flower, or, in other 
words, such plants are hermaphrodites. One would nat- 
urally suppose that there could be but one object in thus 
placing the sexual elements in such immediate juxtaposi- 
tion, namely, that each pistil might be fertilized by its own 
pollen or male element. Late researches have, however, 
made it evident that often even among plants, the nup- 
tials cannot be celebrated without the intervention of a 
third party to act as a marriage priest, and that the office 
of this third person is to unite the representatives of dif- 
ferent households. To be aE seed capsules are most _ 
productive when their ovules are fertilized by pollen from — 
another plant, or flower of the same plant. “ Breeding 
in and in,” can by absolute experiment, be proven to pro- 
duce a degenerate offspring in the vegetable kingdom, no 
less than in the event of a PE between first cousins 
in the human race. 
Now the marriage priests vo officiate i in the vegetable 
kingdom are insects in search of honey ; the vinda, or 
anything which by accident, or design, may carry the 
pollen from one flower to another. How often do we 
AMERICAN NAT. VOL. I. 9 os 
