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MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



a very high magnifying power, are founcl to 

 consist of a membrane, inclosing a fluid, in 

 which an infinite nmnber of excessively mi- 

 nute particles are seen in active motion ; these 

 contents are eventually discharged through 

 the tube, the gram being left empty. The 

 figures in the 4th wood-cut are intended to 

 illusti'ate this action of the pollen tubes ; of 

 the two larger ones, that with the triangidar 

 pollen represents it as taking place on the 

 stigma of the common evening primrose ; the 

 other, the descent of the tubes through the 

 stigma and parts of the style of the gi'eat snap- 

 dragon or calve's snout. This curious pro- 

 cess was unknown to naturalists until recently, 

 though the influence of the pollen in the fer- 

 tilization of the seed seems to have been un- 

 derstood in relation to certain plants from a 

 period of great antiquity, especially some of 

 those iu which the stamens mid pistils are 

 produced in diiferent flowers, and occasion- 

 ally on different individuals, whose male and 

 female attributes must have been recognized 

 by the cultivator before success could have 

 attended his labors. As a strikuag instance, 

 we may refer to the date, the stajile food of 

 the nations of the Arab stock from time im- 

 memorial. The date tree is a kind of palm 

 growing abundantly in the sandy and rocky 

 districts of Persia, the adjoining Provinces of 

 Western Asia, Arabia, Egypt, and Northern 

 Africa, and is largely and assiduously culti- 

 vated b}"^ the inhabitants. A forest of dates is 

 a magazine of pi-ovision for a city, and the 

 failure of a crop spreads depopulation through 

 whole provinces ; the quantity of fruit yield- 

 ed by a single tree iu each season is, on the 

 average, from two to three hundred weight; 

 every village has its plantation, and even the 

 splendid city of Zenobia derived its Roman 

 name of " Palmyra," and its Arabic and 

 scriptural appellation of " Tamor " or " Tad- 

 mor " in the desert, from the groves of dates 

 by which it was from necessity surrounded. 

 These plantations are, of course, chiefly of 

 the trees with pistil or fruit-bearing flowers ; 

 but in order to insure a crop, the natives arp 

 accustomed to gather the large launches of 

 flowers from the male dates, about the time 

 at which the stamens are ready to scatter 

 their pollen, ;ind suspend them over the oth- 

 ers ; nay, to guard against an adverse season, 

 they lay by stores of pollen from yesu" to 

 year. This " marriage of the palms," as it is 

 c;illed in the figurative language of the East, 

 is a festival f)f too early origin to be recorded 

 even by tradition. ISo well is the necessity 

 of the process understood even by the wild- 

 est of the wandering and predatory tiibes, 

 that in cairying war uito the lands of their 

 neighbors, they frec[ueutly cut down the 

 stem-bearing dates as ihe most drcadtul 

 vengeance they can inflict. Some idea of 

 the importance of tin- act may be gatheivd 

 from the statement of Kicmpler, that the 

 thre;it only of so iloing once put a stop to an 

 intended invasion of a then vei-y fonnidable 

 power : he mentions, " I remember it hap- 



(760J 



pened in my time that the Grand Signior med- 

 itated an invasion of the cit>- and territory of 

 Bassora, which the prince of that countiy pre- 

 vented l>y giving out that he would destroy 

 aO the male palm tiees on the first apjiroach 

 of the enemy, and by that means cut otf from 

 them all supplies of food during the siege." 



Tliis principle iu cultivaticm, so long under- 

 stood and made available in that of the date, 

 was afterward found to be applicaljle ui the 

 nurture of all kinds of flowering plants. Of 

 the experiments by which it became estab- 

 lished beyond the reach of controversy, or of 

 the means by which our present knowledge 

 of the important fact has been acquired, it is 

 unnecessaiy for us now to iucjuire ; however 

 interesting the detail, we must wave it for the 

 consideration of the result, viz., the vast 

 power that knowledge has placed in the 

 hands of civilized man, to multiply and en- 

 large these sources of food and luxuiy which 

 he derives from the ve^ettdjle kingdom, and to 

 which the plasticity ot nature seems scarcely 

 to have assigned a hmit. The almost endless 

 varieties exhibited among our cultivated 

 plants, whether iu root, or leaf, or flower, or 

 frait, or seed, have all their origin in the re- 

 ciprocal action of the stamen and pistils ; Na- 

 ture herself has contributed many, but man 

 has far ouLstridden her slow progress. The 

 bee iu passing from flov*-er to flower, carries 

 away stores of pollen destined to fonn the 

 waxen fabric of his dwelling, and deposits 

 stray particles adhering to his wings and body 

 upon the pistils of others of a difterent kind ; 

 while numerous small flies and beetles are 

 occupied, in their search for food, in impre^- 

 natuig in a similar maimer the seeds of one 

 plant with the pollen belonging to another. 

 Hence the uncertahity attending the preser- 

 vation of cherished varieties of annual plants 

 in cultivation. When the gourd knowii by 

 the name of " vegetable marrow," wiis first 

 introduced uito this country, I received some 

 seeds of a very fine variety brought horn the 

 Continent, and celebrated there tor the hu-ge 

 size and luscious character of the white fruit; 

 for several years no deterioration was (^jsei-va- 

 ble ; but having sown one season some of the 

 seeds belonging to one large " nuurow " fruit 

 reserved for tlie purpose, my sui-]>rise \\as 

 great to find, when the i)laiits came into 

 bearing, no fi-wer than three different varie- 

 ties of gourds were the produce of different 

 individuals, all of them totally unlike the ori- 

 ginal. Tliisap])areiit anomaly wa;* aflervsard 

 explained away by the fact that, while my 

 vegetiible marrow was flourishing on one side 

 of a high wall, my neighbor had trained a 

 punipkiii !Uid an orange gourd on the oppo- 

 site ; and the reserved fruit must ha\e had its 

 seeds fertilized by the pollen of both of them, 

 and of some other species or viu'iety brought 

 by the bees or other insects from a greater 

 distance. These freaks — if we may so teim 

 them — of Ntiture are not only productive of 

 occasionid loss and disapj)oiiitmeut to the cul- 

 tivator, but even of much greater evil, as 



