92 POLLEN-COLLECTORS 
Further remarks on the POLLEN-COLLECTORS of CAMPANULA, and 
on the mode of fecundation. By W. Wutson, Esq. 
Five years ago I presented to the readers of this Journal the result 
of my early studies of this genus (see vol. i, p. 601), and I have 
now to acknowledge that I was led by the appearances which 1 
observed, into the erroneous conclusion, that the pollen-grains ob- 
tain access to the interior of the collecting hairs by virtue of some 
peculiar function exercised by these organs. Very soon after the 
publication of my paper, I became dubious about the validity of the 
inference I had drawn from innumerable examples; and in the 
following season, having had recourse to the test of examination of 
the pollen-collectors previous to dissection, I could no longer 
withstand the conviction that the introduction of pollen-grains 
within the hairs does not take place until an avenue is artificially 
opened by means of the dissecting knife ; and that all the numerous 
cases of introduction which I had witnessed were owing to the 
facility with which the grains enter the hairs at the moment when 
the sections were made for microscopic scrutiny. I have now to 
state, by way of apology, that the inference, though an erroneous 
one, was not hastily made, and that the same inference has since 
been made by Dr. Hartig, and adopted by him, as an important 
fact, in support of his new theory of the fertilisation of plants, and 
more particularly of that part which treats of “ fertilisation by 
. . means of the style.” The use which is made of the supposed fact 
in that work impels me to delay no longer this retractation; and I — 
am happy to state that a renewed examination of Campanula rotun- 
difolia has supplied me with very satisfactory evidence, that the 
same mode of fecundation obtains in this genus, that is observable 
in other plants, and that the doubts which I have long entertained 
as to the validity of Schleiden’s theory have at length been almost — 
entirely removed. I shall now give the result of my Res inves- .. 
_ tigation of this genus. 
: The hairs which cover the upper part of the style, and the back 
~ or external face of each branch of the stigma, are simply poken- — — 
. collectors, and nothing more: they discharge this function admir- —— 
; TA and d eras ne they retire, each within. its o2 
