Rain at Blossoming-time. 335 
eipitating .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 heen 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 
eurious appearance. The anthers of the innermost. 
stamens were plunp 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 
hy 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 
