“I take away the six stamens. There remains a central body swollen at the bottom, narrowed at the top to a long filament, and surmounted by a kind of head wet with a sticky moisture. In its entirety this central body bears the name of pistil; the swelling at the bottom is called the ovary, the filament growing out of it is the style, and the sticky head terminating this filament is known as the stigma.
“What big names for such little things! you will say. Little, yes; but of unrivaled importance. These little things, my friends, give us our daily bread; without the miraculous work of these little things the world would come to an end.
“With a penknife I cut the ovary in two horizontally. [[148]]In three compartments grouped in a circle we see some tiny grains arranged so that each compartment has two rows of them. They are the future seeds of the plant. The ovary, then, is the part of the plant where the seeds are formed. After a certain time the flower withers, the petals wilt and fall, the calyx does the same, or sometimes it remains to play the part of protector a while longer, the dried stamens break off, and only the ovary remains, growing larger, ripening, and finally becoming the fruit that contains the seeds.
“Every sort of fruit—the pear, apple, apricot, peach, walnut, cherry, melon, grape, almond, chestnut—began by being a little swelling of the pistil; all those excellent things that the tree and plant give us for food were first ovaries.”
“Then a big juicy pear began by being the ovary of a pear blossom?” queried Emile.
“Yes, my friend,” was the reply; “pears, apples, cherries, apricots, even big melons and enormous pumpkins begin by being the little ovaries of their respective flowers. I will show you an apricot in its blossom.”
Apricot Blossom Cut Open
Uncle Paul took an apricot blossom, opened it with his penknife, and showed his listeners what is here reproduced in the picture.
“In the heart of the flower,” he explained, “you see the pistil surrounded by numerous stamens. [[149]]The head at the top of it is the stigma; the swelling at the bottom is the ovary or future apricot.”