THE LIFE OF A PRIMROSE. 169 
pollen, which we saw sticking to the knob at the top, 
are coming down to help them. As soon as these yel- 
low grains touch the sticky knob or stigma, as it is 
called, they throw out tubes, which grow down the col- 
umn until they reach the ovules. In each one of these 
they find a tiny hole, and into this they creep, and then 
they pour into the ovule all the protoplasm from the 
pollen-grain which is sticking above, and this enables 
it to grow into a real seed, with a tiny plantlet inside. 
This is how the plant forms its seed to bring up 
new little ones next year, while the leaves and the roots 
are at work preparing the necessary food. Think 
sometimes when you walk in the woods, how hard 
at work the little plants and big trees are, all around 
you. You breathe in the nice fresh oxygen they have 
been throwing out, and little think that it is they who 
are making the country so fresh and pleasant, and 
that while they look as if they were doing nothing 
but enjoying the bright sunshine, they are really ful- 
filling their part in the world by the help of this sun- 
shine; earning their food from the ground; working 
it up; turning their leaves where they can best get 
light (and in this it is chiefly the violet sun-waves that 
help them), growing, even at night, by making new 
cells out of the food they have taken in the day; stor- 
ing up for the winter; putting out their flowers and 
making their seeds, and all the while smiling so pleas- 
antly in quiet nooks and sunny dells that it makes us 
glad to see them. 
But why should the primroses have such golden 
crowns? plain green ones would protect the seed quite 
as well. Ah! now we come to a secret well worth 
