fruit. (Drawing by
M.E. Feltham.)]

If we watch a flower of the peach or cherry from week to week, we will
see that the pistil develops into a peach or cherry which bears within
a seed from which a new plant will be produced if the seed is
placed under conditions necessary for germination or sprouting.

The pistils of the flowers of other plants will be found to develop
into fleshy fruits, hard nuts, dry pods or husks containing one or
more seeds.

The work of the pistil or pistils of flowers then is to furnish seeds
for the production of new plants.

The botanists tell us that a pistil will not produce seeds unless it
is fertilized by pollen from the same kind of flower falling on its
stigma.

The work of the stamen then is to produce pollen to fertilize the
pistils. Pistils and stamens are both necessary for the production of
fruit and seed. They are therefore called the essential or necessary
parts of the flower.

The botanists also tell us that nature has provided that in most cases
the pistils shall be fertilized by the pollen of some other flower
than their own, as this produces stronger seeds.

How is the pollen carried from flower to flower?

Go into the garden or field and watch the bees and butterflies flying
about the flowers, resting on them and crawling into them. They are
seeking for nectar which the flower secretes. As they visit plant
after plant, feeding from many flowers, their bodies become more or
less covered with pollen as they brush over the stamens. Some of this
pollen in turn gets rubbed off on the stigmas of the pistils and they
become fertilized. Thus the bees and some other insects have become
necessary as pollen carriers for some of the flowers and the flowers
in turn feed them with sweet nectar.

This gives us a hint as to one use of the corollas which spreads out
such broad, brightly-colored, conspicuous petals. It must be that they
are advertisements or sign boards to attract the bees and to tell them
where they can find nectar and so lead them unconsciously to carry
pollen from flower to flower to fertilize the pistils. The act of
carrying pollen to the pistil is called pollination, and carrying
pollen from the stamens of one flower to the pistil of another flower
is called cross pollination.

If we examine a blossom bud just before it opens we will see only the
calyx. Everything else will be wrapped up inside of it. Evidently,
then, the calyx is a protecting covering for t