SOME CONCLUSIONS. 27 



used small pasteboard boxes. We find just the point that Professor Hansen makes: 

 That there is danger of mould if the pollen be not perfectly dried. We use these paste- 

 board boxes to take up the moisture if it is present, and they have been very satisfactory 

 in our use. I am speaking of pollen of apple, plum and cherry, and we have been 

 sending it out from the experiment station packed in small boxes for individual use. 



S. A. Beach: In my experience with the grape pollen I have found that a good 

 method to secure a good quantity of pollen and at the same time to protect the blossoms 

 from the visits of insects is to gather the flowers when they are about to open, transfer 

 them to the laboratory, and have some sized paper spread over a vessel of water; punch 

 a hole in the paper and stick the stem of the blossom into the water and cover it so as 

 to make a moist chamber. In that way, so far as my experience goes, you can get the 

 best development, have the best success in the opening of the anthers, and secure the 

 largest percentage of pollen. Then after you have secured the pollen in that way, the 

 method Professor Price mentioned is, I believe, the one to follow. 



W. B. Alwood: I would like to note an experience with the pollen of wheat. 1 

 found that by going into a field in the morning after a rain, say, at night, on a bright, 

 sunny morning at nine o'clock, and plucking the heads which seemed to be mature and 

 holding them in my hands in the sun, I could observe the blooms open and the fila- 

 ments elongate, and the pollen would be poured out very rapidly, and my idea was that 

 in that way I could collect pollen of wheat in a little watchglass very rapidly. And I 

 found that pollen so collected was very effective in pollenizing the female plant later, 

 but I never kept it over one day. 



H. F. Roberts: We have kept pollen for three days and found it very successful 

 in use. 



Occasionally pollen of Amherstia noh.lis, a very handsome ornamental tree grown 

 in the Botanic Gardens in the West Indies, has been forwarded from Trinidad to Ja- 

 maica in order to fertilize flowers in the latter island. The tree is a shy seed-bearer 

 and the plan of obtaining pollen from other sources was adopted with good results. As 

 far as I can remember the anthers were gathered early in the morning and placed 

 between sheets of blotting paper and deroatched by post in cardboard boxes. I should 

 say that a similar plan might be successfully adopted with other leguminous plants when 

 seed is not freely produced. 



