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.
There is not, and they die off like the petals of the corolla and the calyx before them. But because of the variety of stamens in number and situation, botanists have thought it well to divide plants into classes by this means.
How do they do that, father?
They place in one class all vegetable substances whose flowers contain but one stamen; in another, those with two stamens; and so forth. The number and arrangement of the pistils enable us to form plants into orders; as, a flower may have four stamens, and one pistil, or four stamens and two pistils, &c.
I suppose the stamens and pistils are always found together.
No, they are not: though Compound flowers are made up of sets of flowers within the same calyx, we have plants in which the stamen, or male flowers, are in one part, and the pistil, or female flowers, on another portion of the tree. The former are barren flowers; the latter, fertile or fruitful, as the seed vessel is only connected with the female side.
I think the service of winds, insects, and birds, is more needful than ever now. But I have seen people pick off flowers from melon and cucumber plants, saying, that they were no good.
These were the male blossoms. But they who pluck off all the barren blossoms before the pollen appears, can never expect to have fruit; for the fertile blossoms are of no use without the others. But what would you think of male flowers being all on one tree, while the female are upon another at a distance?