PERFECT POLLEN GRAINS, HIGHLY MAGNIFIED 
The pollen grain is a single cell, enclosed in two transparent envelopes and consisting of a 
nucleus surrounded by nutritive material. 
The latter supplies nourishment for the growth 
of the pollen tube, down which the nucleus slips to unite with the ovule and thus start the 
growth of a new plant. 
Gray ascribes to the Coccineae nine 
species and one variety of enough 
importance to constitute a paragraph. 
I was able to investigate the pollen of 
four forms: three of them _ species, 
namely, C. anomala, C. Pringlet and 
C. pedicellata; and the one variety, C. 
coccinoides var. dilatata. I also exam- 
ined two more—one of which was to be 
found in Sargent and not in Gray, and 
one of which may not yet be described. 
These two were C. delecta and C. 
flabellata. I found that the pollen of 
all these forms was practically normal, 
never showing more than 10% abortive 
grains. I was unable to procure any of 
the local species: of this group, but 
these, as can readily be seen on studying 
the following chart, are so situated 
geographically that they might easily 
be of hybrid origin. 
272 
The pollen here shown is that of C. coccinea. 
(Fig. 12.) 
Gray: Coccineae of Northeast Coast of U.S. A. 
Montreal and Central Maine 
1. C. holmesiana, south to Rhode Island and 
Pennsylvania, west to Michigan. In moun- 
tains to North Carolina *(var. vi/lipes, south 
of Pennsylvania in mountains). 
2. *C. anomala, North Adams, Mass., and 
Albany, N. ¥. 
3. C. cocc. var. dilatata, south to Rhode 
Island, west to Missouri. 
Northwest New England 
1. C. Pringlei, south to Pennsylvania, west 
to northern Illinois. 
* (var. exclusa, Vermont and northeastern 
New York.) 
* (var. lobulata, Vermont and northeastern 
New York.) 
2. C. polita, south to Delaware, west to 
Southern Michigan. 
Middle Belt 
1. C. pedicellata, South Connecticut, south to 
Pennsylvania and Delaware, west to southern 
Ontario and northern Illinois. 
2. C. coccinoides, southwest Indiana to 
eastern Kansas, southwest Indiana to eastern 
Kansas. 
