SOME VARIETIES OF POLLEN. 



The fertilizing dust or pollen of different flowers varies 

 in shape, no two species being exactly alike when 

 examined under a powerful microscope. 



As the subject may have hitherto escaped the atten- 

 tion of my readers, I will notice what varieties have 

 been perceived and made note of by such scientific 

 naturalists as Jussieu, Malpighi and others. 



Malpighi, the learned French naturalist, found that 

 the pollen of the sunflower was round, but beset with 

 rough prickles; in the cranesbill or geranium family 

 the particles were perforated ; in the mallow they took 

 the form of wheels with teeth ; in the palma Christi, like 

 grains of wheat ; in pansies, angular ; in maize or Indian, 

 corn, flat and smooth; in borage, like a thin rolled-up 

 leaf ; in conif erse, double globules. 



The observations of Jussieu concerning the pollen of 

 the maple deserves our notice. He says : " Those gentle- 

 men who have minutely examined the fertilizing dust of 



