December  4,  1902.  JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
521 
Pollen. 
With  very  few  exceptions,  if  we  examine  the  flowers 
in  our  gardens,  we  shall  find  in  their  centres  a  number  of 
slender  projections,  upon  the  tops  of  which  there 
is  a  mass  of  powdery  material,  which  is  the  pollen 
or  fertilising  element  of  the  flower.  Having  found  some 
of  this,  it  would  well  repay  the  observer,  if  he  or  she  has 
a  microscope  of  even  low  power,  to  scatter  a  little  of 
this  powder  over  the  field  of  view  and  study  it.  Treated 
thus  we  shall  find  that  every  different  species  of  flower 
has  a  differently  shaped  pollen  grain,  and  that  one  and 
all  are  beautifully  fashioned,  and  often  beautifully  coloured, 
dispelling  entirely  the  first  idea  of  its  being  mere  dust 
of  no  particular  structure. 
In  point  of  fact,  the  pollen  grain  is  one  of  the  greatest 
The  Horticultural  Hall 
wonders  of  nature,  for  within  its  tiny  compass  there  are 
enshrined  all  the  potencies  of  the  riant  species  from  which 
it  snrang.  We  may,  however,  if  we  are  clever  enough, 
magnify  it  enormously,  and  dissect  it  to  the  utmost,  and 
yet  find  nothing  but  a  little  gummy  matter  contained  in 
a  sort  of  husk,  and  with  perhaps  a  just  perceptible  dot  or 
nucleus  floating  within  it ;  and  yet  it  is  within  that  infini¬ 
tesimal  dot  that,  in  some  occult  fashion,  lie  the  future 
capabilities  of  a  plant  to  produce  exactly  all  the  manifold 
characteristics  of  its  parents,  or,  it  may  be,  the  combined 
characters  of  several  progenitors  ;  or,  going  even  further, 
it  may,  in  some  mysterious  way,  adopt  original  plans  of 
its  own. 
The  pollen  grains  may  vary  as  they  will  in  shape  and  size 
and  colour,  and  be  gathered  from  plants  as  different  from 
one  another  as  the  Oak  and  a  tuft  of  grass,  and  yet  in 
every  case  the  vital  principle  within  it  will  be  found  to 
be  outwardly  and  inwardly  identical — i.e.,  be  a  simple  cell, 
despite  its  difference  of  origin  and  the  consequent  differ¬ 
ence  in  the  results  it  may  produce.  Although  in  itself 
neither  a  seed  nor  a  spore,  we  have  but  to  place  a  grain 
of  it  upon  the  stigma  of  the  flower  whence  it  was  taken 
to  see  it  presently  apparently  germinate  seed  fashion,  for 
under  such  circumstances  it  will  burst  its  husk  and  pro¬ 
trude  a  root-like  tube,  which  will  burrow  into  the  stigma 
like  a  root  into  the  soil,  traverse  it  from  end  to  end,  and, 
finally,  always  carrying  the  little  dot  of  matter  aforesaid 
with  it,  combine  with  the  embryo  seed  near  the  base 
of  the  stigma,  and  so  fertilise  and  fit  it  for  subsequent 
growth  and  development. 
The  stigma  varies  very  much  in  length  in  various 
plants,  and  hence  the  pollen  grain  varies  in  size,  because 
it  needs  a  greater  or  less  reserve  of  material  to  form  a 
longer  or  shorter  tube.  Lily  pollen,  therefore,  is  large 
grained,  and  there  are  few  more  beautiful  objects  than 
the  pollen  of  Lillum  candidum  or  auratum,  or  any  of  the 
The  Council’s  Plan. 
larger  Lilies,  it  being  more  or  less  intensely  coloured 
crimson  or  orange,  beautifully  long,  oval  shaped,  and  pitted 
all  over  with  exquisite  delicacy.  Having  grasped  the  won¬ 
derful  vital  complexity  which  must  exist  in  the  pollen 
grain  to  enable  it  to  fulfil  its  task  of  transmitting  specific 
or  varietal  characters  both  of  form  and  constitution,  we 
shall  be  the  more  astonished  at  Nature’s  lavish  profusion 
in  some  Cases  in  the  supply  of  these  tiny  bodies. 
Even  in  our  ordinary  garden  flowers,  which  are  ferti¬ 
lised  by  the  bee  or  other  insects,  the  pollen  grains  enor¬ 
mously  outnumber  the  possible  seeds,  and  every  bee-keeper 
knows  that  the  bee  appropriates  a  very  liberal  percentage 
in  return  for  the  service  rendered  in  carrying  the  balance 
from  bloom  to  bloom,  and  thus  involuntarily  mating  them. 
Many  trees  and  other  plants,  in  addition  to  the  grasses, 
trust  entirely  to  the  wind  to  carry  the  pollen  to  the  female 
flowers,  which  are  frequently  borne  on  other  trees  or 
smaller  plants  than  those  which  bear  the  pollen  flowers. 
In  these  cases,  Nature,  in  order  to  secure  the  continuance 
