260 
POPULAR SCIENCE REYIEW. 
more to expect from anatomy and physiology. And yet the 
subsequent declaration of his excellent translator, Dr. Lan- 
kester, as to the importance of the cell-biography of species, 
should at least have arrested the attention of our systematists ; 
but, true and opportune as his statement surely was, it seems 
to have fallen with little effect. 
Of the pollen, whatever may he the defects for ordinal 
diagnosis, it is well known that there are orders truly charac- 
terised by it ; and we shall soon see that lower subdivisions, 
even species, may be known by the pollen-grains and other 
cells. 
We have heard it remarked, that this subject of the cell- 
history of species is so immense, that no one man could ever 
expect to complete it. Just so. And for this very reason we 
wish to introduce the question to the readers of the Popular 
Science Eeview,” hoping to enlist recruits into the service of 
this interesting and important branch of botany. A pleasant 
service, too ; for Nature is ever delightful, and, as one of her 
own poets sings, 
“ Never did betray the heart that loved her,” 
a truth which we must more and more confess, as we extend 
our researches through her works, especially into this lowly and 
useful but beautiful and neglected department of the pollen and 
other plant-cells. Let any one turn his attention to them in 
some of the most familiar or abject weeds, meeting him in every 
field and wayside at this season, and the constant size and 
structure, the numerous resemblances and differences, in the 
pollen-grains of certain orders will immediately claim his ad- 
miration. Many of these forms, as may be seen in the works of 
Balfour, Fritzsche, Bindley, and Hassell, have been often de- 
scribed and figured ; while the specialities of others are either 
quite unknown or strangely disregarded, though they are amply 
sufficient to afford novel and curious characters, and even to 
disclose manifest and constant differences between nearly allied 
plants, and are, moreover, easily displayed under the micro- 
scope. The same remarks apply, as we shall preseutly see, to 
the shape, structure, size, and contents, of many other cells. 
In truth, it seems amazing that we have so few appeals, espe- 
cially concerning species of which sufficient definitions are 
wanting, to characters of this kind, in our systematic books ; 
and it is to be hoped that the interesting path now onl}’’ in- 
dicated, may soon be candidly examined, if not followed, by 
the authors of our general and local floras. 
The interest of the subject will at once be manifest, if we 
examine the cells of various common plants, such as are arranged 
close together in Professor Babington’s excellent ‘^Manual of 
