34 On the Production of Hybrid Vegetables. 



is not at all analogous to the singular .production of perfect 

 tunicated bulbs in the seed-vessel without the intervention of 

 any alimentary seminal substarfce. The plant hitherto called 

 Pancratium Amboinense has never manifested any disposition 

 to bear bulbs on the stem or leaf, like some Liliums ; nor, 

 as far as I know, has any instance been observed of such 

 plants as are otherwise bulbiferous, producing bulbs within 

 the seed vessel. 



The particles of the pollen of Amaryllis, Crinum, &c. seen 

 through the microscope, are vesicles in form like Cucumber 

 seeds, but more plump, and less acute. The stigma of Ama- 

 ryllis proper* is covered with long, slender, transparent 

 tubes ; that of most Crinums with short conical tubes, ex- 

 actly like miniature cones of a volcano. By these, the 

 vesicles of pollen are arrested; and, from the manner in 

 which I have seen torn and empty vesicles adhering to 

 them, I suspect that, by some power of contraction, the tubes 

 may break them ; but at all events the particles are full of a 

 clear liquid, which looks, in the microscope, like the finest 

 white honey, and it seems that this liquor must be conveyed 

 by the tubes into the style, and through its vessels to the seeds, 

 which are severally attached; by a sort of umbilical chord, 

 to its base. I attempted, by examining transverse sections 

 of the styles of Crinum and Amaryllis in the microscope, to 

 ascertain whether there were three separate communications 

 from the three lobes or corners of the stigma to the three cells 

 of the seed vessel; but I could not discern any communica- 

 tion, the whole appearing to be a spongy substance, so 

 minutely reticulated, that its pores could not be clearly de- 



* See Botanical Magazine, Plate 2113. 



