BOTANY. 105 
can be, whether with one, two, or five leaves, and this too though 
the inner or, as we would say of true leaves, the upper surfaces, so 
essential to most plants, do not exist during the growing time. 
In my recent paper on Cotyledons (‘ Proceedings American - 
Association,” Indianapolis) I noted that the usually pluri-cotyled- 
onous Abies excelsa frequently has but three, and at times but two 
seed lobes. The number of lobes does not seem in the slightest 
degree to aid the individual or to exert any influence whatever 
on the preservation of species. 
The trees and shrubs of Europe mostly bear seeds more pro- 
fusely than closely allied American species. Quercus robur, com- 
mences to bear acorns when ten years old. It then bears annu- 
ally. Quercus alba, the American white, rarely fruits till fifteen or 
twenty, and then seldom leaves but every other year, although 
generally more prolific than any other North Eastern American 
oak. It never approaches in profusion the best specimens of the 
English species. 
Liriodendron tulipifera appears ‘to have an abundance of pol- 
len, so far as an examination of its numerous flowers indicates. 
The seeds are distributed by a light wing. The immense major- 
ity of the distributed carpels are seedless. 
In the Pine family the pollen is in immense profusion. If we 
climb into a tree just as the pollen sacs are bursting, our clothes 
are as yellow as if turned out of a mustard bag. 
Many observations of a similar character must have been made 
by every botanist. 
At page 183 of this journal, 1871, I said we may say of pol- 
len or of seeds themselves, that ‘nature makes numberless things 
for which she has no use whatever. Perhaps it may be, that like 
the human mind, the mind of nature likes variety and profusion, 
in the effort for which mere utility is not always consulted.” The 
editors remark—“ and of this sort pollen and seeds are queer ex- 
amples. Does he mean that these are useless because superabun- 
dant enough to ensure against risk and loss, and appropriation by 
animals through which fertilization and dispersion are subserved ? 
It does seem to me that no utility is subserved by the division of 
Pine leaves or of cotyledons; nor in a large number of cases 
which might be cited as to the mere form ‘of plant structure. In 
the case of the oak, and other similar instances the American spe- 
cies holds its own against all losses as well as its English brother ; 
* 
