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THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



some justice that the Agricultural Colleges have been largely 

 interested in problems not directly connected Avith advances in 

 farming. Too often investigators have been more concerned 

 with the structure of some plant pest than in measures for its 

 eradication. Analysis of soils and crop rotation have taken 

 precedence of such problems as the improvement of other than 

 staple crops, the selection of varieties fitted to definite locations 

 and the improvement of market conditions. Evidently the 

 farmer is expecting the colleges to get down to business. 



The Largest Seed. — There seems to be no question as to 

 which is the largest monocotyledon seed. The double cocoa- 

 nut, which often weighs thirty pounds, has a clear title to this 

 honor. In the case of the dicotyledonous plants, the issue is 

 not so clear. According to the Scientific America Ji the title 

 should go to Diinoi'phandra inegistospenna, a tree discovered 

 by Henry Pittier during recent explorations in Panama. 

 Some of the seeds of this remarkable forest tree measured by 

 the discoverer were more than seven inches long and nearly 

 five inches wide. 



Longevity of Pollen. — The pollen grain is rarely 

 thought of as anything but a bit of fertilizing dust, but it is 

 far more. Li reality a pollen grain is a spore, to all intents 

 and purposes similar to a moss or fern spore, and like them 

 capable of giving rise to new plants. But just as the fern spore 

 produces a structure very unlike the plant we know as a fern, 

 so the pollen grain does not produce much of a plant, as com- 

 mon plants go, though its importance is none the less real on 

 this account. Were it not for the sperms produced by the pol- 

 len grain plant, the eggs in the plant ovules would miss fer- 

 tilization and so. fail to develop into seeds. It is usual when 

 one Avishes to introduce a ncAv variety into a dift'erent locality 

 to do so by means of seeds or cuttings, but Avhen the nature 

 of the pollen grain is understood it Avill be seen that ncAv strains 



