On tliePuUcn of Flo-jcers. S7i 



and run up the pith in different short vessels, figs. 1 and 2. 

 I know not a better example of Dioecious trees than the Wil- 

 low : they are all the same in their flowering ; two stamens alone 

 appear out of the bud, from which they are classed, fi<T, 1 . ; the 

 rest pass from the male bud to the female, and fructity all the 

 seeds : fig. 4- is the nectary of the male bud of the Willow, 

 fig. 3 X , of the female. It will be seen that the male is led up 

 by the spiral wire, the female by the alburnum; and so inva- 

 riable is this law, that it passes through every class of plants, 

 and serves to distinguish the sexes in all the Cryptogcmiia plants, 

 where such a mark is of consequence, and I never saw it vary 

 in any one instance. 



When the plants are Monoecious, and have the male and 

 female in the same tree, you may always see, at the termination 

 of the piece of stem, to which sex that piece belongs, and in 

 herbaceous plants, such as the Indian Wheat, Carexes. The fe- 

 male first surrounds the male; they then cross each other, and 

 the female is discovered fixed in the centre of the plant, to 

 form the cone ; in cutting the plant open all the way, the parts 

 between the knots are always filled by the style of the female 

 plant, while the seeds are growing under the knots : then the 

 male flower passes by the female and makes its appearance at 

 the top of the grass or corn. 



It is most evident why the pollen comes from the tap root 

 naked, or without anther or filament: a great quantity ■ must 

 pass up to the bud, and through die new shoot ; the vessels are 

 small, and would not contain either addition, especially the an- 

 thersjwhich are so formed with their four corners that they could 

 not pass through a straight vessel, fig. 5. I was a long time be- 

 fore I discovered this. It is curious not only to see the loads of 

 pollen that run up the new shoot, but the early time they begin 

 to run up. The stem, the moment the new shoot is beginning 

 to protrude, and the ix)llen mounts it, is the first process for 

 the new year, which in plants may be said to begin in August. 

 I have often seen the pollen waiting in vast quantities near the 

 new screw of die Poplar a month before the shoot was com- 

 pleted ; then die moment they can rise and pass the screw, 

 fig. 6, they are so loaded with the balls, so crowded togeUier, 

 that it is wonderful with what ease they i)ass up. It is admi- 

 rable that every important part is formed in the root, and not 

 one that is not absolutely essential, and of real consequence to 

 the fructification :— the female flower-bud, for example, but not 

 the leaf-bud ; the pollen, but not die anthers and filament; 

 the heart of the seed, but not the seed itself, which, large as it 

 is, is a mere appendage and cover to the heart, which contahis 

 that slioot which is to form die next year's plant or tree. 



Vol. 60. No. 291. Jm(»/ 1822. II The 



