POLLENIZATION 75 



channels in a never ending stream back and forth 

 into the grain and out again, gathering who knows 

 what in its continuous journey. Finally the nucleus, 

 the male element in every pollen grain, but usually 

 invisible,' comes out and is carried along in the 

 stream of protoplasm, down the growing tube which 

 has, by the attraction of sex, grown the tiny distance 

 to the stigma, through it and down the pistil, which 

 may be only a fraction of an inch to over a foot long, 

 till it reaches the ovary, in these protected, not yet 

 explored recesses in living subjects of plant life. 

 What happens when the nucleus and protoplasm 

 mingle, is not well known, but the result is a new 

 life, an embryo seed capable of carrying on, coming 

 into existence, which after ripening and a resting 

 period can, when the conditions are right, again 

 spring into active life and bring forth one of its own 

 kind. 



Many of the trees, like the pine, and most grasses 

 depend on the wind instead of the bee to carry their 

 pollen from anther to stigma. "The wind blows 

 where it listeth," so enormous quantities are pro- 

 duced. Nature, ever lavish, produces billions of this 

 magic golden dust, trusting that possibly one in a 

 million may fall and lie caught below by the waiting 

 stigma. In corn, one of the grasses, as the pollen 

 ripens, a shower of pollen drops every few minutes 



