374 



these kings is shown to be consistent with the data derived 

 from the canon of Ptolemy; and a comparative view of Assy- 

 rian, Babylonian, Jewish, and Egyptian reigns concludes the 

 paper. 



Mr. William K. Sullivan read, by permission of the Aca- 

 demy, the following notice on the Chemical History of Pollen 

 of Plants. 



" The object of the present memoir is merely to bring be- 

 fore the notice of the Academy a few of the results at which I 

 have arrived in the course of a long series of researches on the 

 chemical nature of the pollen of plants. 1 hope to have the 

 honour of laying before the Academy, at its next meeting in 

 November, a detailed account of all the results which 1 have 

 obtained. 



" Hitherto I have examined the subject only in two points 

 of view, viz., the proximate analysis, and the action of nitric 

 acid on poUenin. 



" If pollen be treated with ether until nothing further is 

 dissolved, and if the ether be distilled off, an oil is obtained hav- 

 ing all the properties of an acid. In all the pollens which 1 have 

 examined I have found this to be the case ; in no instance 

 could I detect the presence of glycerine. This is the only 

 case with which I am acquanted, in the whole vegetable king- 

 dom, of the existence of a free oily acid. The presence of this 

 oily acid in pollens has evidently an intimate connexion with 

 the office which they perform in vegetation. Fritsche,* in 

 speaking of the question as to whether the pollen-sac contains 

 granules of different chemical compositions, and which of these 

 granules is necessary to the function of fructification, says, 

 that from his experiments he can only draw the probably er- 

 roneous conclusion that the oil-globules exist in every pollen, 

 and that they are necessary for fructification, while the other 



' Uebtr lien PvUen, Petersburgh, 1837, p. 33. 



