20 RAYMOND J. POOL 



are open for a single day or less. But this was probably the first 

 time that the giant cactus ever bloomed in Nebraska. On May 

 17 three buds opened, and the day being Sunday the flowers were 

 seen by many people who were delighted with the display. 



After the second series of buds had opened we supposed that 

 the branch was done producing flowers and we then centered our 

 interest upon such questions as to how long the specimen would 

 live, if new roots would be formed from the wound caused by 

 cutting the branch off, etc., etc. Much to our surprise, however, 

 in a few days we noted that additional buds were appearing and 

 evidently we were to see still more flowers. One of these buds 

 opened on May 27 and another on May 28 after which no flowers 

 were produced until June 28 when another normal bud opened. 

 After a flowering period of almost two months we concluded 

 that the flower of June 28 was surely the last but imagine our 

 surprise when on September 18 one more flower appeared. This 

 closed flower production on the excised branch for 1914. Seven 

 flowers had opened but in all cases the ovaries withered and fell 

 from the plant and not one ripe fruit developed. Artificial 

 pollination was resorted to but even this did not result in the 

 growth of the ovary even until the perianth segments were 

 thoroughly collapsed. 



The structure of the flower of Carnegiea is well known to 

 everyone. The great number of stamens is especially note- 

 worthy. Bessey* has already reported that in one of the flowers 

 produced by this isolated branch there were 3482 stamens and 

 1980 ovules by actual count. 



We were now quite sure that no more flowers would be pro- 

 duced during the season of 1914 so we began to direct our study 

 to other features of the potted branch. About October 15 the 

 branch was removed from the container, the lower end was 

 dusted off and carefully examined for the appearance of roots. 

 The wound by this time had become thoroughly covered with a 

 soft spongy callus but no signs of roots could be found at any 

 point. The callus was practically continuous. Decay had not 

 appeared in any degree whatever. 



* Science, N. S., 60: 680, 1914. 



