No two plants have the same shaped pollen, which is of all possible forms. The tiny grains are generally each enclosed in a delicate bag, the subtle powder of which is more like smoke than anything else, in which are particles of starch or drops of oil. But our orchis does not seem to have a regular anther, for the pollen looks all of a heap. That is correct. But which do you fancy is the _Pistil_? I don’t know, unless it be that in the middle surrounded by the stamens. This is a thread, too, with a knob at the top. The support is the _Style_, and the summit is the _Stigma_. When you examine flowers you will observe the stigma of various shapes and sizes; but there is always a sticky substance on the top. Does the pistil rise from the same place as the stamens? No, it comes from a lump at the bottom. That lump is the _Ovary_, or seed basket, sometimes known as the _Germen_. Some botanists believe that the several parts of flowers are only metamorphosed, or changed leaves, and that the pistil is one of these growing vertically. You have seen in a double stock, or other double flower, that the stamens have grown into petals. But why is it that the corolla falls off so soon? I have seen our garden beds strewn with blossoms, and yet the stamens and pistils keep on much longer. But what happens when these go in their turn, Willie? Why, the ovary, as you call it, swells out. But what makes the fruit? That fleshy substance around the seeds, of which you are so fond, is merely the swollen _Pericarp_, or covering of the seed vessel. Children’s teeth should not go into the pericarp until the seeds are about ripe. I know that. When a pear is nice and mellow, then the seeds within are quite hard. But would you call the pod of the pea a pericarp? Certainly. It consists of two valves, with hinges, and the seed on each side. Sometimes there are several valves together, and we call the whole a _Capsule_. When these burst, the seeds fall out. But how are the seeds produced? We are coming to that next. I told you of the bursting of the anther, and the scattering of the pollen. Though much of the dust is wasted, a part is caught on the glutinous stigma of the pistil. And what becomes of it then? It passes down the hollow style into the ovary at the bottom. Yet I have seen flowers in which the pistil was higher than the stamens; how could the pollen reach it? Many curious contrivances effect the transfer. The wind blows the yellow dust. A bird throws some about. An insect catches some on its wings and legs, and stepping on the stigma, leaves pollen behind. Is the honey in the nectary to tempt the insects to the flower? The sweet morsel attracts birds as well as insects. When, then, the stamens have discharged their pollen, and the pistil conveyed it to the germen, I suppose there is no further use for them.