*:T. 33.] TO JOHN TORREY. 325 



studying fertilization a little, and have got out pollen- 

 tubes of great length ; have followed them down the 

 style, have seen them in the cavity of the ovary, and 

 close to the orifice of the ovule. 



My first views were in Asarum Canadense and A. 

 arifolium, where I can very well see the pollen-tubes 

 with even my three-line doublet ! I have seen them 

 finely in Menyanthes ; and in the ovary in Chelidonium ! 



I am lecturing l in a popular and general way en- 

 tirely on physiological botany, and offering no encour- 

 agement to any to pursue systematic botany this year. 

 My great point is to make physiological botany ap- 

 pear as it should be, the principal branch in general 

 education. Next year I hope to take up the other 

 branch. 



I am using the Lowell illustrations (though too 

 large for my room), and am having no additional ones 

 made for the college. For simple things I depend 

 much upon the blackboard. I have given two lectures 

 on the longevity of trees, and have a third yet to give, 

 or at least half of another. . . . 



The plants from the mountains have some done well, 

 others poorly. Buckleyas had a hard time, of it. 

 Many are dead ; none I think will flower this season, 

 as they only put out from the root. Diphylleia, Saxi- 

 fraga Careyana, a new one like it, also S. erosa, etc., 

 are now in flower. Astilbe is in bud, also Vaccinium 

 ursimim. One Carex Fraseri flowered. Hamiltonia 

 only starts from the root. 



In 1844, finding he needed more room for his rap- 

 idly increasing herbarium, Dr. Gray applied for the 

 use of the Botanic Garden house, which since the death 



1 To his college class. 



