No. 144.] '127 



like plants, and the charge of hydrogen gas must be of extreme 

 precision to enable the little balloon to float so accurately at the 

 requisite height. 



If the charge was more or less the little balloon would rise too 

 high or sink too low. The form of the pollen grain differs much 

 in diiferent plants. The pollen contains tubes from inside to out. 

 The wistaria, a vine so called from the late Dr. Wistar, of Phila- 

 delphia, produces bunches of lilac colored flowers of great beauty 

 and numbers. On one vine there have been estimated in one 

 season, 9,000 bunches, 675,000 single flowers, 3,375,000 stamens, 

 and 1,050,000 ovules. And for the purpose of fertilizing these 

 ovules, the anthers, if perfect, w^ould have contained 27,000 mil- 

 lions of pollen grains, or about 7000 to each ovule. 



Insects also convey pollen to flowers and thus fecundate them. 

 Orchidaceous flowers are well distinguished by the peculiar forms 

 of their flowers, their remarkable lip, gynandrous stamens (male 

 and female), and their pollen masses. Their flowers resemble 

 (often) insects, such as butterflies, moths, bees, flies, spiders — or 

 birds, such as doves and eagles — or reptiles, such as lizards and 

 frogs. The colors and spots on the .perianth sometimes give the 

 appearance of the skin of quadrupeds, such as the tiger and leop- 

 ard, and these resemblances are often indicated in the generic and 

 specific name. 



Note by H. Meigs. — Orchids are found growing all over the 

 world, excepting in continual dryness or excssive cold. They 

 grow on branches of trees, on stones. 



[Revue Horticule.] 



Gingko biloha, growing in Montpelier. 

 The Forty Crowns Tree or nut of Japan, was first noticed by 

 Kampfer. Thumberg fixed its locality at Nangaraki, in the Japan 

 Island of Niphon. In Japan it is considered, says Siebold, as ori- 

 ginally from China. It there attains an enormous size. Bunge says 

 that he saw one at Pekin, near a Pagoda, which measured nearly 

 43 feet in circumference, and it was of prodigious height. It is a 

 curious tree. It succeeds at Montpelier, bearing annually perfect 

 fruit. One was brought to England in 1754, and lived 30 years. 



