FLOWERS. 
59 
FLOWERS. 
M. Decaisne treats of i\\Q Development of the Male Blossoms 
of the Mistletoe in the aboye-mentioned memoir, respecting the 
pollen, the ovules, and the stem of the mistletoe. On making 
a transverse incision quite through a young flower, slices were 
obtained, which, in the same manner as the vessels, are sepa- 
rated into four divisions. A layer of cellular tissue forms the 
external circumference ; this is followed by a green matter, 
mixed with granules, which have a strong molecular movement, 
and an uncoloured tissue is situated in the centre, against 
which the green matter makes four projections. The green 
matter some time afterwards was distinctly seen separated into 
four parts, each consisting of two halves, an external green 
half belonging to the calyx, and an internal paler coloured 
one from which the anthers were produced. The green part 
gradually increased, and shot forth prolongations into the 
inner part, which crossed through it. On examining each of 
these four parts separately, clearer spots were perceived in 
them, which were spaces filled with mucus matter ; the cellu- 
lar tissue which forms the walls of these spaces contains many 
small granules, and some of them also contain a nucleus of a 
lentil-shaped form, which the author calls a phakocyst.^ The 
mucus in the spaces, upon being submitted to a greater degree 
of magnifying power, subsequently exhibited round, trans- 
parent, large cells, which the author, as well as Mirbel, calls 
pollen cells (utricules polliniques). These pollen cells some 
days afterwards cease to be transparent, and one, or some- 
times two, oval nuclei are formed, which consist of small 
granules. The pollen cells, about five days afterwards, become 
again transparent, the granules being concentrated in one 
mass in the centre. They are still surrounded by a mucus 
substance. Thus the pollen cells remain for some days ; four 
* From <pax,og, lentil, and bladder. The name, says the author, 
seems to give a more correct conception of the characteristics, “ sans rien 
prejuger de ses fonctions,” than the term of Cytoblast, 
451 
