PROF. THISELTON DYER ON SCIENTIFIC HORTICULTURE. 9 
they are excluded.* This was proved, first, by extensive exami- 
nation in the Wheat-fields, and by bringing a large supply of Wheat- 
heads about to flower into the house and putting them in water, 
with a paper under the glass so as to see if any pollen fell down ; 
secondly, by the examination of the stigmas of flowers with their 
anthers still included ; thirdly, by the fact that the stigmas are 
never protruded at all. 
As to other Grasses, Dactylis glomerata has pollen in the anthers 
at the time they appear. This is readily seen by striking the culms 
with a stick, when a cloud of pollen flies out. Anthoxanthum 
odoratum is protogynous, but some of the anthers are protruded 
before all the stigmas of the panicle are. Alopecurus pratensis is 
protogynous ; all the stigmas in a panicle are protruded about 
twenty-four hours before any of the anthers are. This was tested 
by placing bits of paper on the growing plants as soon as the 
stigmas appeared. 
III. On Eecent Progress in the Scientific Aspects of Horticulture. 
By W. T. Thiselton Dyer, B.A., B.Sc, Professor of Botany 
to the Eoyal Horticultural Society. 
[Introductory Address at the Birmingliam Congress, June 26, 1872.] 
It has fallen upon me, rather as a matter of official obligation than 
from any special qualifications, to open the proceedings of this Con- 
gress with some remarks upon the more theoretical matters connected 
with horticulture which possess anything of novelty. Pirst of all, 
however, it may be well to consider in what direction the utility of 
such a meeting as we are now holding appears principally to lie. 
If I may express my own conviction, it is in the advantage of 
having an opportunity of discussing in an informal way matters 
connected with horticulture which from time to time come into 
prominence. I do not think it necessary that the subjects brought 
forward should be particularly novel or particularly recondite, but 
only that they should be such as happen to occupy our minds, 
l^or do I think that the value of the Congress is to be estimated by 
the success or dulness of any particular meeting ; on the contrary, 
* Confirming the observations of Dr. Boswell-Syme, "Journ. of Botany," 
1871, p. 373, and Bidard, Comptes Rendus," 1869, p. 1486. 
