6 A TEXTBOOK OF GENERAL BOTANY 
and a slender structure, the style, which connects the ovary and 
the stigma. Around the pistil are the stamens, which consist of 
slender filaments and large terminal anthers. Below the corolla 
is the calyx with pointed green lobes. The calyx inclosed the 
remainder of the flower when it was a bud. 
The process by which the male element is carried to the egg 
is shown diagrammatically in Fig. 4. In this figure are seen 
four anthers, three of which have opened so that the pollen 
grains are visible. When the pollen grains are deposited on the 
stigma, they produce long 
tubes which grow down 
into the ovary and enter 
small oval bodies, the ovules, 
each of which contains an — 
egg. In Fig. 4 the pistil is 
represented as cut in half 
longitudinally. In the cav- 
ity in the ovary are shown 
six ovules. There are four 
pollen tubes in the pistil. 
The longest of these is seen 
entering an ovule. 
Fruits. The male element escapes from the end of the pollen 
tube and fuses with the egg, after which the product of this 
fusion develops and becomes an embryo, the ovule being trans- 
formed into a seed. The seeds are inclosed in the Fruit, which 
is the ripened ovary. When the seed meets with conditions 
favorable for development, the embryo grows and becomes an 
independent plant. The fruit not only contains the seeds but fre- 
quently serves as a means of distributing them to distant places 
where they may find favorable conditions for development. Ex- 
amples are seen when a bird eats a fleshy fruit and later deposits 
the seeds at a considerable distance, or when the husk of the 
coconut (Hig. 304) enables the seed to float to a new locality. 
All parts of the plant have separate functions, but all con- 
tribute to what, after all, is the main function of the plant, the 

Fig. 4. Diagram of a section of a flower 
at the time of fertilization 
