126 [Assembly 



Grafting wax. 

 A successful grafter uses the following : 



Two parts of resin, one part beeswax ; work the mixture with 

 your hands, adding small quantities of tallow or of lard; work 

 the whole to about the consistence of glaziers' putty. 



This composition will not melt down in hot weather, nor crack 

 in dry, windy weather. 



Approved by Judge Livingston. 



Prof. Mapes said that a better article was composed of one-half 

 Canada balsam, ditto of beeswax. 



This, melted, may be poured on to sheets of paper ; when cool, 

 cut into ribbons of any required length and breadth— will adhere 

 to wet surfaces. I work it in my hand when I want to apply in 

 mass, adding some vermillion for the look of it. 



Pollen. 



[From Balfour's Manual of Botany, London, 1851.] 



A stamen consists of two parts, the filum (or thread) and the 

 anther, which last contains the powdery matter called pollen. 

 Pollen consists of powdery matter contained in the anther ; they 

 are small cells developed in the interior of other cells ; when ma- 

 ture the pollen-grain is a cellular body, having an exterior (out- 

 side covering) and an interior (inside). Tritzseh states that he has 

 detected, in some cases, other two coverings, which he calls intex- 

 tine and exintine, color generally yellow, and the surface often 

 covered with a viscid or oily matter called fovilla. This fovilla 

 contains small spherical granules, sometimes 3 oHotli of an inch 

 in diameter, and ellipsoidal or elongated corpuscles; which are 

 said to exhibit movements under the microscope, similar to those 

 seen in infusoria, and in some algse. Pollen, again vary from 

 gi^th to T^oth of an inch, or less in diameter; their forms ate 

 much diversified ; the most common form is ellipsoidal, more or 

 less narrower at its extremities, which are called its poles, &c. 

 Prof. Mapes, at the Club of April 4th, said that some pollen was 

 composed of balloons which contains just hydrogen gas enough to 

 float them in air at the proper elevation to reach the flowers of 



