Rain at Blossoming -time. 335 



uipitating .72 of an inch of water), until 3 P. M. 

 of the 25th. The total length of time in which the 

 tree was kept wet was two hundred and nineteen 

 hours, or nine days and three hours. 



"On May 17, after the tree had been under the 

 spray twenty -four hours, an examination was made 

 of the stigmas of many of the flowers, and they 

 were found to be dusted with pollen, although no 

 insects had been seen about the tree. Pollen was 

 taken from fresh anthers on the 21st (the fifth day), 

 and placed in weak sugar solution, to test its ger- 

 minative power. It proved to be perfectly capable of 

 germination. The flowers at this time presented a 

 curious appearance. The anthers of the innermost 

 stamens were plump and of their normal pink color, 

 while the outermost ones were swollen and decayed, 

 and contained many disintegrated pollen grains, and 

 a few that had evidently been induced to germinate 

 by the excess of moisture. The power of the male 

 elements to withstand long -continued moisture was 

 apparently great, for at the close of the experiment, 

 after the rain had ceased, many anthers opened and 

 shed an abundance of pollen, while the anthers of 

 flowers on adjacent trees had withered and fallen sev- 

 eral days previously. After turning off the water , on 

 the 25th, an examination with a hand lens was made 

 of flowers on both the side nearest to and that far- 

 thest from the spray, with the following result : 



"Of four hundred and three flowers counted on 

 the side receiving the most water, one hundred and 

 three were possessed of plump anthers and apparently 



