PAPERS ON AGRICULTURE 



97 



however, to suggest the possibility of this phenomenon hav- 

 ing been mistaken for real germination in some of the pre- 

 viously reported work referred to above. 



It is interesting to note that only fresh pollen is able to send 

 out these protoplasmic sprouts, old pollen remaining turgid 

 and inactive. 



METHODS 



For this investigation fresh pollen was used, the tassels being 

 collected and brought into the laboratory early in the day of 

 the experiments. The observations were made by means of 

 the hanging drop cultures. The special precaution against 

 the use of impure water in making up the solutions was taken 

 by redistilling the water from glass vessels. 



RESULTS 



We first tried a series of simple solutions taken in varying 

 strength from 5 to 30 per cent, and table I gives the results. 



TABLE II. 

 Germination Experiments in Mixed Solutions 



