87


by  a  flower  is  a  mass  of  red  or  yellow  petals,
conspicuously  arranged  about  the  true  floral
organs.  The  petals  form,  in  point  of  fact,  the
popular  notion  of  a  flower— though  from  the
point  of  view  of  science  they  are  comparatively  un-
important, and  are
commonly  spoken
of  (with  the  calyx)
as  "the  floral  en-
velopes." It  is  the
stamens  and  pistils
(or  carpels)  that  are
the  true  flowers ;
they  do  the  mass  of
the  real  work ;  and
an  enormous  num-
ber of  flowers  pos-
sess these  organs
alone,  without  any
conspicuous  petals
or  other  coloured
surfaces.
However,  if  you
take  a  pretty  garden
flower  (say  a  scarlet
geranium)  as  a  typi-
cal   example,    and
begin  to  examine  it
from  the  centre  out-   FIG.  16.— GRAINS  OF  POLLEN,  VERY
ward  (which  is  the       MUCH  MAGNIFIED,  SENDING  OUT
truest     way),     you       ™LLE»-TUBEB.
will  find  it  consists  of  the  following  parts,  in  the
following  order : —

In  the  very  centre  of  all  comes  the  pistil,


88        THE  STOEY  OF  THE  PLANTS.
consisting  of  one  or  more  carpels,  and  con-
taining the  embryo  seeds  or  ovules  (see  Fig.  15).
