98 PICTURING MIRACLES 



why and wherefore, of nature's struggles to carry on, 

 the difficulties to overcome, make one realize that the 

 Guiding Hand must control all life, that one can- 

 not well be a student of life and an atheist. 



This Spider Lily (Hymenocallis) pollen is the only 

 one in over five hundred kinds with which I have 

 worked in which I found a visible nucleus in a live 

 specimen. The nucleus, the male element in flower- 

 ing plants, is in every pollen grain, but had not until 

 this time been visible except in dead stained subjects. 

 The staining kills it but makes it visible, and just 

 what changes take place in staining and killing are 

 unknown. So studying the cut sections may not lead 

 to the true conclusion of what really takes place. I 

 felt that if they could be pictured in life, under con- 

 ditions identical with nature, I could, with the 

 aid of the lapse-time camera, without deviation, fol- 

 low and make visible the slow natural movements 

 of this phase of life. This I did, and so have been 

 enabled to record a truer conception than is gained 

 in any other way. 



What happens to a grain of pollen in sweetened 

 water can be followed very easily. If the right per- 

 centage of sugar is present, duplicating as nearly as 

 possible the secretion from the stigma, it will absorb 

 the mixture. Turgor, ever a driving force in nature, 

 sets in, that is, the internal pressure is greater than 



