is: 



si.moiiiiK.-s aided bv the winds. 



In Indian com, Zea Mays, the flowers are monoecious. The stami- 

 nate flowers are in the tassel that terminates the stem. The pistillate 

 flowers are closely placed in rows in the ear and are concealed by the 

 husks, but each one sends its long filamentous Btyle and stigma up- 

 ward and outward till they project in a silken tuft at the apex of the 

 ear. Thus the pollen is far above the stigmas and must descend to 

 lodge upon them. This it does under the influence of gravity, often 

 acting, it is true, in conjunction with the wind. When the pollen, 

 which is dry and dust-like, is mature, it falls from the anthers by the 



scattered over the stigmas of the neighboring plants. Much of it also 

 lodges on the leaves and on the ground, but enough is produced to 

 insure fertilization of the flowers, notwithstanding this loss. And 

 here is one of the many wonderful facts connected with this subject ; 

 facts which not only challenge our admiration of the perfection of 

 nature's works and processes, but which also sometimes almost stag- 

 corn may be said to produce ten rows of flowers, of forty each. This 

 would make four hundred flowers to an ear, and consequently, four 

 hundred silken stigmas in a cluster. A tuft of the " silk " is scarcely 

 more than an inch in diameter, and in order to bring about complete 

 fertilization of the flowers of the ear, each stigma must receive its 

 pollen-grain. It seems almost incredible that, in the apparently hap- 

 hazard way in which the pollen is transmitted, four hundred pollen- 

 grains should fall on such a small space. Yet, when we examine the 

 mature ears we generally find that every flower has developed its ker- 

 nel of corn. We must, therefore, admit that every flower was fertil- 

 ized, and that nature's methods, however rude they may appear to us, 

 are really perfect and effectual. It may here be stated, as a general 

 principle, that those plants which depend on the winds to transport 

 their pollen produce a great abundance of it and thus provide against 

 the dangers of great loss. They also produce it in a dry, dust-like 

 condition, that it may be easily scattered. 



Probably you have all seen the humm in- bird darting from one flower 

 to another and thrusting its long slender beak into the corolla to 

 obtain a sip of nectar. In doing this, its beak or the plumage of its 

 head becomes dusted with pollen and some of this is brushed upon 

 the stigmas of the flowers next visited. Thus the humming bird is 

 made the unwitting agent in the fertilization of these flowers. Some 

 flowers appear to be specially constructed for fertilization by humming 



