PROCEEDINGS OE THE CLUB 

 March 8, 1904 



This meeting was held at the College of Pharmacy, with Vice- 

 president Rusby in the chair ; there were seventeen persons 

 present. The minutes of the preceding meeting were read and 

 approved. 



The first paper on the scientific program was by Professor 

 Francis K. Lloyd on " Recent Investigations on the Pollen-tube," 

 and was an interesting exposition of the parallel results of Longo's 

 investigations on the behavior of the pollen-tube in Cucurbitaceae 

 and Professor Lloyd's work on Rubiaceae. 



Longo finds that in Cnawhita Pcpo L., the ovary is provided 

 with a special conductive tissue reaching to the neck of the 

 flask-shaped nucellus by means of which the pollen-tube follows 

 a completely intercellular course from stigma to embryo-sac. In 

 other species of Cucurbita and in Citnilhis vjilgaris, the neck of 

 the nucellus is not long enough to reach to the conductive tissue, 

 so that for a short distance the tube must .move through a 

 cavity. On reaching the neck of the nucellus, the pollen-tube 

 forms a bulla that produces lateral outgrowths which Longo 

 believes are for the purpose of reaching out after food materials, 

 as their size seems to depend on the amount of starch present. 

 This view is -rendered somewhat questionable by the phenomena 

 observed by Wylie in Elodca, where pollen-tubes may produce 

 similar " cystoids " in the free space of the locule but never 

 produce them in the tissues where food substances must be more 

 abundant. 



Longo supports his conclusion that the intercellular course of 

 the pollen-tube is followed not because of inability to grow in 

 open space, by showing that pollen-tubes may be produced in 

 moist air from such normally endotropic forms as HudiuIhs 

 Lupnlus L., Picca cxcclsa, etc. He interprets chalazogamy as a 

 physiological fact having no bearing on ph}-logcn}'. In plants 

 having endotropic pollen-tubes, he considers the direction of 

 their growth to be determined chemotactically. 



