What Every Mother Should Know; or, How Six Little Children Were Taught The Truth

by Margaret Sanger

A complete flower: st, stamen; pi, pistil; pe, petal; s, sepal; ca, calyx; c, sorolia. After Bergen.

Pistil. sti, stigma; sty, style; ov, ovule. After Bergen.

The pistils were called the “mothers” because at the bottom of the thin tube are the ovules or seeds. The pistils were examined carefully and the very top or stigma was found to be very sticky. “Why?” asked the children. But they were told they must wait and find out about the father before they found out why this part of the mother was sticky.

Now attention was again called to the seeds lying within the pistil of mother, and the fact that they were not developed yet. “Why?” Again we must wait to learn something about the father.

Now we come to the stamen, or “father.” This is a slender thread-like fibre which has at its ends a little case or sac which contains a very fine powder-like substance, called the pollen.

In most of the flowers there are several stamens and one pistil; but in the buttercup there were several of each—so that the Buttercup House contained several families, the children were told.

Now to come back to the fathers, or stamens, and the tiny sacs containing the pollen. This pollen is a very important part of the growing of all flowers. The children were asked to name some of the flowers which they knew that had this powder on them. Answer came in the name of golden rod, wild rose, cherry blossom and many others.

Now it was explained that this pollen from the stamen, or father, must get into the pistil or mother, and reach the ovules or seeds, or the seeds cannot grow and develop into new plants. This union of the pollen with the ovules we called “mating” or “to mate.” And as this process of developing the seeds is the one object of plant life, we shall see how they go about accomplishing this object.