248 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



look at the matter in outline, filling in, hereafter, 

 such details as may seem necessary. Plants blossom 

 in order that seed may be produced and perfected, 

 and the race continued. But before seed, in the 

 true sense, can be produced at all, pollen, which is 

 borne by the anthers, and which we have all noticed, 

 as the abundant orange-coloured dust of the lily, 

 e.g., must be placed upon a certain special part of 

 the flower, called the stigma, a fact discovered by Sir 

 T. Millington two centuries ago. Should the pollen be 

 of a suitable kind, and the stigma in a receptive 

 condition, a delicate thread, called a pollen tube, 

 is thrown out, by the pollen granule, into the seed 

 vessel, by which the seed becomes fertilised, and, 

 when mature, capable of germination. The great 

 majority of flowers possess both anthers and stigmas. 

 They carry the two sexes within themselves ; and we 

 might suppose that, this being so, the form of the 

 "flower would secure the transmission of its pollen 

 to its stigma, in order that the end of its being 

 might certainly be accomplished. 



So thought the older botanists, and were, in con- 

 sequence, puzzled in explaining the reasons for the 

 forms of the blossoms they examined. It was pointed 

 out, however, as long since as the close of the last 

 century, by a keen observer of Nature — Sprengel — that 

 the structure of a large number of blossoms was such 

 as seemed designedly to render this simple arrange- 

 ment impossible. His observations for many years 

 bore no fruit, and appeared to be overlooked ; but, 

 during the last two decades, systematically-conducted 

 experiments and extended observations by many 



