A lecture on the geography of plants / By John Barton.

  • John Barton
Date:
1827
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture on the geography of plants / By John Barton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    79/120 (page 67)
    ing in the centre of the rest, grows on the seed- vessel, and differs in form from those which surround it. This is called the pistil, the others are the stamens. These last are crowned with knobs at their extremities, which open as the blossom expands, and let out a sort of powder, generally of a red or yellow colour. The bees diligently collect this powder, load it on their hind legs, and carry it to the hive for the pur- pose of feeding their young. In thus provid- ing for their own progeny, these insects often assist very materially the process of fructifica- tion; for, unless the summit of the pistil be touched with this fertilizing dust, the fruit does not swell, nor the seed arrive at maturity. And as the stamens, in certain plants, grow on dif- ferent blossoms from the pistils, it is by the help of the bees, chiefly, that the development of the fruit is secured; some of the powder which they have collected from the stamen-bearing flowers being unconsciously left by them in visiting the pistil-bearing flowers. In certain cultivated plants which have these two kinds of blossoms, as the Melon and Cucumber, the process of fructification is insured by the gar- dener, who plucks the staminiferous flowers, and inverts them upon the other. In the Haut- boy Strawberry these two sorts of blossoms are produced by distinct plants; and of course