POLLENIZATION 85 



and a pollen tube and nucleus of slightly different 

 color that will make it possible to picture the action 

 going on in life. Is the result, if accomplished, worth 

 the effort? As no bit of knowledge gained is ever 

 lost, this bit of insight may open the door to a higher 

 form of life which may lead onward still further. 

 The flowering plants and their ways of life are a 

 step in advance of the Algae and their methods of 

 functioning. That more visible step which can be 

 watched and pictured in flowering plants, the nu- 

 cleus in the pollen grain which is the male element 

 seems to be all that is required to produce a fertile 

 seed, that is, being combined with the female 

 nucleus; although possibly some of the protoplasm 

 with both nuclei are used in producing the seed. 

 Among the Algae, Spirogyra is one of the most beau- 

 tiful forms of plant life to work on. The plant grows 

 in long hairlike filaments in stagnant water. The 

 filaments are divided into cells with a spiral gamete 

 between each partition dividing wall, the tiny 

 nucleus suspended in the center. The filaments grow 

 by cell division. They elongate, constrict in the cen- 

 ter, a partition wall forms, dividing the gamete pro- 

 toplasm and nucleus in two smaller cells grow and 

 carry on the life process. This growth is rapid in the 

 younger stages more difficult to observe as the fila- 

 ment matures. 



