THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 41 



•bud. The bud grew but was accidentally broken off when 

 about three inches long. The bud that had been inserted, 

 however, was a multiple bud, having a flower bud on either 

 side of the leaf bu!d that first grew. After the destruction of 

 this first shoot, the flower buds were stimulated to exert 

 themselves to see what they could do to repair the loss of the 

 leafy stem ; but they were up against a difficult proposition ; 

 for being merely flower buds, with floral organs already 

 present in embryo, they could not entirely change their nature. 

 The attempt, however, was interesting. One of them opened 

 anid developed sepals that grew abnormally, becoming almost 

 as large as ordinary peach leaves. The petals of the corolla 

 were shrunken add' lacked their normal bright color. The 

 pistil grew into a twisted, dwarfed shoot, while the stamens 

 were abortive. Moreover, the peduncle grew till it was many 

 times normal length. 

 Kansas City, Mo. 



POLLEN GRAINS. 



MYRIADS, countless teeming myriads, of pollen grains, 

 infinitesimally small in size, extremely delicate of 

 texture, color and shape are fonned and, for the most part, 

 lie hidden in the secret recesses of the simple and often de- 

 spised, or the more beautiful and attractive, blossoms with 

 which Nature paints our world with glory. To the naked 

 eye they pass unnoticed; with the microscope they will show 

 their loveliness and individual strangeness of form both of 

 which are so great that one stands charmed and well nigh 

 spellbound before them. Here are tiny structures most won- 

 derfully made, created to carry out the most important func- 

 tions namely the fertilization of their own plant species and 

 consequent propagation of their kind. They are formed 

 within the stamen anthers, mature and die unseen ; yet on 

 their brief but essential life's work we depend for much that 



