CHAPTER VIII 
The Bee and the Flower 
Hidden in the pistil, the egg-cell waits for the sperm¬ 
cell in the pollen of another flower, to come and wake 
it into growth. 
On the oak branch, 
as we have seen, the 
pistils and stamens 
grow in separate 
flowers, no one 
flower containing both 
male and female 
cells. But with most 
garden flowers this 
is not the case. Al¬ 
most every flower which you admire holds in its bright 
corolla both pistil and stamens. It is so with the butter¬ 
cup and with the rose, with the poppy and with the mig¬ 
nonette. 
Why is it, when the rose contains both egg-cell and 
sperm-cell, both pistils and stamens, that the egg-cell 
must wait for the pollen of another flower? Why does 
not the pollen from its own stamen-heads fall upon the 
pistil and go about its business of joining with the egg¬ 
cell? In other words, why does not the flower fertilize 
itself ? 
