PO VERTY AND BANKR UPTC Y. 22 1 



From a self- fertilised habit, acquired under these 

 circumstances of floral squalor, it is but a step for- 

 ward to the development of cleistogamic flowers. 

 In them there is no possible waste of pollen, and 

 therefore very few grains are sufficient, ranging from 

 about 400 in those of the Wood Sorrel {Oxalis 

 acetosella), whereas the gorgeous flowers of the wild 

 Paeony {Pceonia officinalis) it has been calculated, 

 produce no fewer than 3,650,000 pollen -grains. 

 Our Wheat-plants, when in flower, yield about fifty 

 pounds of pollen to the acre. Hence the necessity 

 for richly manuring cornlands, to supply the phos- 

 phorus and nitrogen thus carried off In Canadian 

 forests the ground is often thickly strewn with pollen 

 from the Pines, which drifts along the ground, fills 

 up hollows, and lies on the surface of still waters 

 and lakes like a crust. The ground beneath the 

 Spanish Chestnuts in our gardens is often completely 

 covered during their flowering season. 



The Palms are quite as prodigal of their pollen 

 as the Pines. Gosse {The Naturalist in Jainaicd) 

 describing the well-known Mountain Cabbage Palm 

 {Areca oleracea), common in certain places in Jamaica, 

 and one of the noblest of all this stately tribe, 

 says : " The immense spike of blossom that projects 

 in the early autumn from the base of the crown, 

 arching gracefully downwards, is a fine object. I 

 have seen, at such times, the earth beneath the tree, 

 for a space of many square yards, quite white with 



