31 
tree, the staminate catkins of which, produced in immense numbers, 
are loosely covered with the small apetalous, four-parted flowers. 
The fallen catkins always exhibit the opened calices, with the four 
stamens stretched out at full length and more or less reflexed. 
_ On a warm morning, late in May, procuring a branch laden with 
catkins, from a cluster of young trees where the discharge was in 
full blast, I had repeated discharges take place while the branch 
was held in the hand. The catkins were not fully expanded yet, 
a few of the flowers only being open, with their reflexed and ex- 
tended stamens, while the majority were closed or but half-opened. 
The latter showed the stamens coiled over in a twisted arch or bow, 
inwards and downwards, with the white anthers closely adjacent to 
each other in tlie bottom and centre of the calyx-cup. I fixed my 
eye on certain particular flowers, and watched them as long as I 
had time, in hopes of seeing the actual opening and discharge; but 
Nature will not hasten for our convenience. Other flowers would 
send off a puff; but all was done in an instant, and I had not my 
eye on the right one at the right time. Failing in this, I tried 
loosening a stamen of a nearly-open flower, with a pin. Instantly 
it sprang outward and backward, assuming the usual full-length . 
retlexed position, and discharged its pollen in the manner observed, 
the anther-cells springing open at the same moment, and appearing 
empty as soon as the eye could note them. This I did over and : 
over again, and always with the same result. In the still air of a 
room, the pollen-cloud from a single anther could be distinctly 
seen for about six inches from the point of discharge. 
The anther-cells open at the same time with the springing out of | 
the stamen ; but whether in consequence of striking against the stalk _ a 
and the adjacent flowers, or independently, could not be deter- 
mined, They appear for a very short time like exquisite little 
valves of white silk, lustrous and delicate; but almost in a quarter 2 
of an hour they begin to show signs of fading, and speedily assume 
that withered aspect that is so familiar on the fallen catkins. ae 
How far this whole phenomenon is familiar to botanists in general, — 
I cannot say. Prof. Gray remarks of the section including this 
tree with Morus proper and Maclura, “filaments inflexed in the _ 
bud, spreading elastically when the calyx expands.” The explosive 
discharge, however, does not seem to be familiarly recognized. It 
is about as complete and energetic a method for distributing the — a 
pollen so as to reach the fertile trees, as can well be imagined. The 
air around a staminate tree must be fairly charged with the grains 
for days; and the lightest wind must carry them to long distances. 
Unfortunately, the fertile trees are so scarce that, for the most part, 
all this activity is but wasting the pollen “on the desert air”; and 
I fear the species are dying out in the city, for it is only by offshoots 
that any new trees are produced, ; 
It may be well to add that all the evidence shows the process to 
be purely mechanical, and in no way connected with any insect _ 
agency. There is nothing in these plain and odorless catkins to 
attract insects; and the discharge goes on in the room, or even in 
the hand, where no insect is near. D. 8. Martin, © 
Sune 25, 1874. 236 West Fourth St, 
