HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



29 



little patience and practice to do it successfully. 

 Lay the style along the first finger of the left hand, 

 holding the ovary firmly by the thumb, then gently 

 push the razor blade from you, towards the tip of 

 the finger. I seldom fail in this way to secure satis- 

 factory specimens for my class use. (See fig. 27. 

 1 is the pollen-grain ; 2, pollen tube ; 3, stigmatic 

 surface, and 4, conducting tissue of the style.), 



When the pollen falls upon the stigma, it is excited 

 by the viscid fluid exuded by the stigmatic surface, 



Fig. 29. — Laticiferous 



it then puts out one or more pollen tubes (2) which 

 are unicellular and usually simple. These penetrate 

 through the conducting tissue (4) of the style, and 

 reach the interior of the cavity of the ovary in a few 

 hours. Of the numerous pollen tubes which as a rule 

 reach the ovary, one only penetrates through the 

 micropyle, and reaches the embryo-sac ; at the apex 

 of the embryo-sac, the pollen tube comes into 

 contact with the embryonic vesicles, and fertilises 

 them. "Vide Suspensor, in Part III. 



J. F. R. 



THE DANISH FOREST. 

 By John Wager. 

 II. — The Forest in Former Times. 



CHANGES in the forests of Denmark did not 

 cease with the completed formation of the 

 peat-mosses, but continued, and still continue to 

 take place, both as regards constituency and extent, 

 and through the agency of nature, as well as that of 

 man. " Den danske Stat," by Ersler, contains a map 

 showing the distribution of forest over Holstein, 

 Slesvig, Jutland and the Danish Isles at the present 

 day ; from which it may be perceived that the 

 Danish islands are in general well-wooded, and that 

 forest extends with varied density along the whole 



extent of the eastern coast of the peninsula from the 

 south of Holstein, through Slesvig, and the greater 

 part of Jutland ; becoming sparser, however, towards 

 the watershed, and almost entirely disappearing on 

 the western side of it, quite to the sea — isolated plots 

 of wood being visible only in a few places here and 

 there. The trees, too, are as strikingly different in 

 point of size as the woods in extent ; on the west 

 coast having a stunted growth of from two to four 

 feet in height, and only in a few places attaining to 

 twenty feet ; while on the east coast and the islands 

 there are trees one hundred or one hundred and 

 twenty feet high, with proportionate amplitude of 

 bole. The west side too is flat, as well as treeless .- 

 a plain of heath, or pasture and cornland intersected 

 with dike fences, from the top of which at dreary 

 intervals a crippled old thorn crouches prone before 

 the pitiless western wind ; varied only along the 

 coast by the peaked and ridged sand-hills, which 

 stretch, like miniature Alps, in long parallel with the 

 sea. But the wooded eastern shores present a 

 constant variety of gentle hills and dales and rising 

 grounds, very pleasant and picturesque in their own- 

 quiet way, forming tree-crested banks and promon- 

 tories, and grassy slopes, upon the ever-recurring 

 bays, inlets and fjords, which indent the irregular 

 coast. Such agreeable combination of water with 

 wooded hills may be seen in the Veile-fjord; and 

 yet more picturesque is the wooded scenery of 

 Greisdal, between Veile and Greis Mill. The valley 

 which is deeper and narrower than usual in Denmarl ,. 

 winds among hills composed of gravel and rounded 

 boulders, but nevertheless bold in contour and 

 charmingly overgrown with beechwoods, which 

 descend into the valley and cluster about a stream 

 with, at least intermittingly, a brisk and lively course. 

 Cottages with timber-framed walls and thatched 

 roofs nestle by its side, and here and there the valley 

 opens into green spaces of meadow and corn. 



But the western side, now so thoroughly denuded 

 that some of its inhabitants have lived and died 

 without seeing a lofty and well-grown tree, had 

 formerly its great extensions of forest also, which have 

 disappeared partly through the destructive operations 

 of war, and partly through improvident cutting down. 

 The great forests of Fuur and Sailing on the Liimfjord 

 were destroyed during the wars of 1657-60 ; those of 

 Thisted and Ringkjobing shared a similar fate ; and 

 in 1559, when the Danes finally subdued the Ditmar- 

 shens, they cut down a large forest which then 

 extended over the present Ditmarsh Heath. A 

 similar contrast is exhibited to the voyager as he 

 sails alternately along the eastern and the western 

 coasts of Sweden ; on the eastern side his eye ranges 

 with delight over innumerable islands and islets 

 beautifully studded with pine-trees ; on the western 

 side it is everywhere chilled by thronging masses of 

 bleak and barren rock ; and the Swedes, who tell you 

 that these also once rose in beauty out of the sea, 



