distance from the end, the womb extending into it. If you could place the stem end of a pear into a collapsed rubber tube and then cause the end of the tube to grow fast to the pear, you would have an excellent illustration of the connection between the womb and vagina. At a point corresponding with the stem in the pear, there is an opening into the

Left half of the female Urinary and Sexual organs, as seen from right side. They are represented as cut in two from before backward. The uterus or womb and the vagina are between the bladder in front and the lower end of the bowel (rectum) behind.

end of the womb called its oss, or mouth.

This is the opening through which little babies pass from the womb into the vagina as they are being born into the world. Of course it must be a very large opening at this time; but when the womb

The female sexual organs, front view, as seen from above, showing their location in the pelvis. The body is represented as cut horizontally across. 1, womb; 2, ovary; 3, fallopian tube; 4, fimbriated extremity of fallopian tube; 5, bladder.

is not impregnated, the oss is so small that a common slate pencil could hardly pass into it. But when a baby is to be born, Nature softens and otherwise prepares the walls of this opening so that the dilation often causes but little pain, especially to women who have never violated the laws of health.

CHAPTER IV.

REPRODUCTION-How IT BEGINS.

In preceding chapters we have studied the anatomy of the reproductive organs, and have learned something about their functions. We have learned that little babies are brought into existence by these organs, but we have not studied the exact plans by which this great work is accomplished. We have seen that trees reproduce themselves by bearing acorns, nuts, and other seeds, and that flowers are reproduced in the same way. But just how the acorns and seeds begin their existence, is a subject that we have not yet considered. Neither have we seen how a baby's life begins. In this chapter we will attempt to investigate that branch of our subject, and the better you understand the preceding chapters, the easier will this investigation be.

SEXUAL ORGANS OF PLANTS.

We have seen that animals are either males or females. A careful study of flowers shows that they too are sexed; or rather, that they are the

sexual organs of the plant which produced them. The little stems in the center of a flower are not the same in flowers of different sexes. Those of the male flower are adapted to perform one function, and those of the female another. In the male flowers they are called stamens; in the female, pistils.

POLLEN-FERTILIZATION.

In order that reproduction may take place, that a new life may begin, it is necessary that something from the male sexual organs shall be deposited in the female sexual organs. In flowers, this is a yellow dust called pollen. The pollen grows on the stamens of male flowers, and is conveyed in some way to the pistils of the female flowers. It is usu

ally done by the wind or by bees. In some flowers we find both stamens and pistils, both male and female sexual organs. It is then a very easy matter for the wind to shake the pollen from the stamens, so that it will fall upon the pistils. Or the bees moving about in the blossom searching for honey will rub against the pollen and get it on their wings and legs and bodies, and then rub against the pistils, leaving them part of the pollen. They soon fly to another blossom, carry a part of the pollen with them, and leave a supply on its pistils. A great scientist has said that flowers are bright and pretty

when the pollen must be carried by the bees from male to female flowers; and that Nature gives the flowers these bright hues so that the bees can easily find them. When the wind alone will properly carry the pollen it is produced by stamens that are not associated with pretty flowers. Depositing in a female flower the pollen from a male flower, is called fertilizing it. When the work is accomplished the flower is said to be fertilized.

In corn, the tassel is the male sexual organ, and the silk is the female sexual organ. The corn is fertilized by the pollen from the tassel falling upon the silk of the ear. If no pollen should reach the silk, there would be no grains of corn on the cob. If pollen from the tassels of two or more different kinds of corn should fall upon the silk of one ear, there would be a mixture of as many different kinds of corn as there were different kinds of pollen.

There is one very prolific kind of strawberry that produces very few if any male blossoms. It is fertilized from other varieties. The two kinds are planted near together, so that the pollen from the male flowers of the variety which produces it in abundance, can easily reach the blossoms of the other variety.