RECREATIONS WITH THE MICROSCOPE 



345 



express it, an orthotropous ovule placed 

 rather obliquely in the cell. Think for 

 a moment what this means. The ob- 

 jects like the tiny granules shown here 

 are not the flowers, but are the plants 

 themselves that produce the flowers 

 and, like the blossoms of all flowering 

 plants, the blossom here is much small- 

 er than the plant itself, and consequent- 

 ly this orthotropous ovule is smaller 

 than the flower. Yet strange as this 

 may seem, botanists have carefully 

 described, in technical language, every 

 detail of the plant, flower, fruit and 

 seed, even to the astonishing statement 

 that this almost invisible orthotropous 

 ovule lies rather obliquely in the cell. 

 Such is a glimpse of the wonderful 

 fairyland world visible to the micro- 

 scope. The whole plant is hardly ap- 

 parent to the naked eye, yet a flower 

 bursts from the side of that plant and 

 produces a seed, and the microscope re- 

 veals even the attitude of that seed as 

 it lies in its cell. These specimens were 

 sent to ArcAdiA in the middle of Sep- 

 tember by one of our correspondents 

 in New Jersey, who informs us that 

 they are the first he has ever seen. The 

 plants were placed in a tumbler of 

 water with a few fronds of ordinary 

 Lemna. Some of them have since died 

 but the accompanying photograph was 

 taken of green and vigorous specimens 

 three months after they were received ; 

 that is, in the middle of December. The 

 mature plant ranges from seven-tenths 

 to one and five-tenths millimeters in 

 diameter, or from one-fiftieth to one- 

 eighteenth of an inch. Another aston- 

 ishing fact is that it is well supplied 



with breathing pores, the stomata of 

 the botanist, from one to six for each 

 plant. In their native habitat the plants 

 float as minute green grains just below 

 the surface of the water in ponds, pools 

 and shallow lakes, from Ontario to 

 Connecticut and New Jersey, west to 

 Minnesota, to Missouri and south to 

 Louisiana. It is found also in Mexico 

 and South America. It blooms in June 

 and July. We hope that our microscop- 

 ical botanists will remember these 

 plants, will seek them in likely places, 

 and observe them in the early spring. 

 If possible to capture them in bloom we 

 shall be grateful for specimens. We 

 should like to photograph them in full 

 flower. The plant has no common 

 name, probably because it is itself not 

 common, and is rarely observed by 

 any except the botanist, or by the lover 

 of nature that goes peering into the 

 ponds and pools, often to the wonder- 

 ment of the spectator, who is more 

 than amazed to see a comparatively 

 well-dressed man, apparently in his 

 right mind, scooping weeds from a 

 ditch. The plant is the JJ'olffia Columbi- 

 ana, known to botanists as JJ'olffia, a sim- 

 ple name, easily remembered, and used 

 in honor of Johann Fried Wolff 

 who in 1801 wrote about the Lemna 

 of the duckweed family to which this 

 belongs. 



It is one of the rarest plants in the 

 country. When the botanist finds it, 

 he considers the finding an event to be 

 recorded and for congratulation.. It 

 has been discovered in the localities 

 named above, but not often ; only once 

 in Connecticut, and perhaps once only 



WOLFFIA PLANTS PHOTOGRAPHE I ) WITH PIXHEADS (MARKED X) FOR COMPARISON A. 



TO SIZE. 

 By Edward F. Bigelow. 



