POLLENIZATION 89 



my faithful ally, the camera, into action and watched 

 the male gamete battering down the still existing 

 partition wall and passing over which required only 

 ten or fifteen minutes. For this period the camera 

 was running at a speed that gave about twenty or 

 twenty-five feet on the screen. After the mingling 

 of the gametes the speed of the camera was always 

 slowed down gradually or once or twice as the move- 

 ment of the gametes, at first very active in a boiling- 

 like movement, gradually slows, as in retarding the 

 camera speed increases the exposure, that must be 

 reduced also. After any first attempt and the develop- 

 ment of the negative, and its very close scrutiny, I al- 

 ways know about what to expect I would probably 

 get one of two scenes, each lasting thirty-five or forty 

 seconds on the screen in a week's work. Quantity 

 production rules do not help much in this sort of 

 work. In fact they are a positive hindrance. Person- 

 ally I worked at every opportunity for four years 

 before I got my first picture, but now that I know 

 what to look for and the kind of material to gather, 

 I could improve on my five minute story on the 

 screen in a month's work. To complete the cycle of 

 life in the Spirogyra the essential stages are the ger- 

 mination of the spore after its resting period. I have 

 watched them for weeks without success. The step 

 following germination is a matter easy to accomplish 



