1 64 THE FAIRY- LAND OF SCIENCE. 
the top of the tube." Well, I cannot tell whether 
you can or not in the specimen you have in your 
hand ; for one of the most curious things about prim- 
rose flowers is, that some of them have these yellow 
bags at the top of the tube and some of them hidden 
down right in the middle. But this I can tell you : 
those of you who have got no yellow bags at the top 
will have a round knob there (j a, Fig. 43), and will 
find the yellow bags (6) buried in the tube. Those, 
on the other hand, who have the yellow bags (2 b, 
Fig. 43) at the top will find the knob (a) half-way 
down the tube. 
Now for the use of these yellow bags, which are 
called the anthers of the stamens, the stalk on which 
they grow being called the filament or thread. If 
you can manage to split them open you will find that 
they have a yellow powder in them, called pollen, the 
same as the powder which sticks to your nose when 
you put it into, a lily; and if you look with a magni- 
fying glass at the little green knob in the centre of 
the flower you will probably see some of this yellow 
dust sticking on it (A, Fig. 43). We will leave it 
there for a time, and examine the body called the 
pistil, to which the knob belongs. Pull off the yellow 
corolla (which will come off quite easily), and turn 
back the green leaves. You will then see that the 
knob stands on the top of a column, and at the 
bottom of this column there is a round ball (s v), 
which is a vessel for holding the seeds. In this 
diagram (A, Fig. 43) I have drawn the whole of this 
curious ball and column as if cut in half, so that we 
may see what is in it. In the middle of the ball, in a 
