1881. ] Microscopy. 169 
must be admitted that so capable an observer, with unlimited op- 
portunities for favorable observation, would be extremely likely to 
see the pollen-tubes at or near the ovules, if they really were 
accustomed to reach that locality; also, that there might be dan- 
ger of mistaking other structures for pollen-tubes at a distance 
from the stigma, that the difficulties to be encountered by the 
pollen-tube in reaching the ovule would be very great in many 
cases, and that it would be almost a miracle if all the seeds of 
some plants having a vast number of ovules should be fructified 
individually by separate grains of pollen. It should also be re- 
that proof of such a theory as that of the fructification of the 
ovule directly by the pollen may seem stronger than it is, a great 
number of statements to that effect resting (possible) on a much 
more limited number of really independent statements. The 
early observations, too, which established the accepted theory, 
must have been made with lenses of inferior defining power and 
without the advantages of staining, which would now render error 
much more improbable. Furthermore pollen-tubes may in some 
instances have really been seen in contact with the ovules, and a 
general theory have been drawn from the fact, when their presence 
there was exceptional and not normal, or at least not general. 
The proof of the old theory is therefore not so positive as it 
seems; and the theory must be to some extent an assum 
tion founded upon facts whose significance is not beyond dis- 
ce. 
Though analogy is often an unsafe argument, the doctrine of 
fertilization of the whole ovary by the pollen is well illustrated, to 
say the least, by the ferns and others among the lower plants 
which produce fertile spores indefinitely as the result of a single 
earlier fructification. On the whole, while far more proof will be 
required to convince the world of the correctness of the new 
theory, still the very interesting and able studies of Mr. Krutt- 
schnitts seem sufficiently conclusive to call for a reconsideration of 
the old theory, or at least, for a revision of the proofs upon which 
it rests. 
AMERICAN MicroscopicaL Society OF THE City oF New York. 
—Owing to a misapprehension which appears to have been re- 
cently encouraged by interested parties, friends of the American 
Microscopical Society of the City of New York—the oldest in- 
corporated Microscopical Society in the United States—are noti- 
fied that the name of the Society has not been changed, its meet- 
wngs discontinued, or its large and valuable collection broken up and 
scattered. At the recent annual election the following officers 
were elected for the year 1880: President, John B. Rich, M. D.; 
secretary, O. G. Mason, Bellevue Hospital. 
VOL, XV.—No, 11, 12 
