GERMINATION IN AMARYLLIDS. 



855 



from many Amaryllids and applied it to a stigma, but never with the 

 result of effecting diverse impregnation. 



From this it would appear as though a single pollen grain were capable 

 of impregnating over one hundred ovules, such as exist in the ovary of 

 Hippeastrum. Yet I do not think we are justified in asserting this to be 

 an ascertained fact. 



Certainly I have noticed that in making inter-generic and inter-specific 

 pollenisations the number of seeds produced has always been much 

 below the normal number ; that in the vast majority of cases no seeds were 

 produced, the embryos having died, although evidence of their having lived 

 and having passed beyond the ovule stage was in many cases incontestable ; 

 in other cases there were no evidences of impregnation. 



These experiments tend to suggest that, beyond the one act of 

 excitation, or impregnation, of the female germs, there remains some 

 further function for the male germs to perform, which is improperly, or 

 only partially, done by foreign pollen grains. 



To revert again to the seed of Hymenocallis concinna (fig. 191, A). In 

 this instance the original process issuing from the seed is duplicated, and 

 each process is terminated by a bulb in process of formation. I can only 

 account for this by admitting the existence of two embryos within the one 

 seed. These again can only trace their existence to the incidence of two 

 germs within the one ovule from whence the seed sprang. Yet if two 

 germs can exist within the one ovule, why not more than two ? Is Nature 

 bound never to exceed the assigned number, or may we contemplate the 

 possibility of erraticism ? And if we have this direct proof that in these 

 Amaryllids more than one female germ may exist within one ovule, we 

 must not exclude the possibility of the multiplication of male germs 

 within the pollen grains. Nor can we altogether exclude the possibility 

 that the male germ, in the process of absorptive growth which ensues 

 when it is brought into contact with the saccharine matter of the stigma, 

 and in the course of the somewhat obscure chemical changes which 

 result, may not become increased by subdivision, or by gemmation, into 

 numerous active units. Perhaps this may give an explanation of how 

 one pollen grain may be able to impregnate many ovules. 



To take a simile from chemistry, may we seek in the molecule and the 

 atom, or in their organic counterparts, the wherewithal to construct the 

 most probable, or the least improbable, theory reconcilable with facts no 

 longer subject to direct and tangible proofs ? 



I have noticed in the direction taken by the original process issuing 

 from the bulbiform seeds of Crinum &c. a very adaptive sequence of 

 events to ensure this process reaching the ground. 



The shape of the seeds is such that it is impossible to foresee what 

 side will, upon dehiscence from the fruit, ultimately rest upon the ground, 

 and, as was pointed out in the first instance, I believe, by Salisbury, there 

 appears to be no law governing the point of emergence of the original 

 process from the bulbiform seed. Hence the same might be upwards or 

 sideways, and the process might end, and the bulb be formed, in some 

 position whence the roots (when emitted) might be unable to reach the 

 mother earth. 



Those persons who recline upon the theory of gravitation to get them 



