The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-02-12
mass, which was the beginning of a

mass, which was the beginning of a
new plant life.
This was the process of fertilization
described by many eminent botanists
Miss Ferguson has clearly demonstrate
ed, however, the remarkable fact that
in the white plant the male and female
nuclei do not fuse together but remain
separate. the male cell lying inbeddad
in the side of the larger female cell
where it is the center Of activity as it
were, the female being passive and
gradually yielding up its hereditary
qualities to the other. While this has
only been shown to be true in the case
of the ordinary white pine. which pre-
sents less difficulties in manipulation
than MANY other trees and plants, it is
probable. from analogy, chat it is also
the case in most If not all of plant life,
which seems to establish a strange but
firm relation between the early forms
of life Of plants and animals.
The whole process Of fertilization as
demonstrated by Miss Ferguson on the
white pine, is like from it's birth till its
death devoted untring energy to ac-
complish a single purpose. The pollen
dust is formed in clusters of little balls
at the ends of some of the tWigs. They
eventually burst open and the dust.
containing countless germs of male
plant life, is waited by the wind to the
young female cones, which at this sea-
son of the year, the month of June.
stand upright with scales spread wide
apart Some of the dust is caught by
the open scales, and rolls down to their
bases, where are the ovules, the homes
of the eggs, or female nuclei.
There is a door in each Of these little
house ovules, and in each door. or pol
len chamber is a sticky fluid which
"a
it dries up slowly draws the dust INTO
the ovule. Then wonderful thing hap
pens. The pollen dust forms itself into
a tube into which it places its precious
little life germs, the male nuclei. This
tube forces it's way down into the ovule
during the whole year, the pine cone
having taken means TO protect it in the
meantime by closing its scales up tight
and turning down, so as to shed the
rain.
Finally, after journey of many
months duration, the pollen tube, with
its little sperm nucleus passengers, ar
rives at that part of the OVule where
the egg nucleus is. The sperm nucleus
then passes itself against the side of
the egg nucleus, making an indentation
in the side of it, and lying there in the
pocket nearly surrounded by the in
folding of the large female nucleus. 1t
,
discoveries begin.
The two membranes of the nuclei re-
main intact for some time, and then
another strange thing happens. The
substance in each nucleus which bears
the hereditary qualities of the cell be-
! gins to move toward the place of con-
tact of the two This is especially the
case in the female cell, where these
substances all move up in front of the
,,r,1r 1o
shaped mass of fiber begins to form
about the male nucleus, While the fe-
male nucleus, which, during the whole
opera ton, has remained passive. begins
to dwindle away. Finally the sub
stances containing the hereditary quail
tiles from both nuclei arrange itself on
this spindle formed about the active
male cell and equal parts of hereditary
substance from the male and female
cells join and proceed to the extreme
ends of the spindle, where they form
new cells, and thus multiplying grad
ually form the young. plant
Miss Ferguson's discovery is the re-
suit of untiring and patient labor for a,
year past. The work was tedious and
delicate and involved the preparation
of large amount of material. An idea
of just what was involved by this may
be gained from the statement that each
tinct treatments containing many
graded operations, and occupying them
about a weeks time, simply to fix" it
in preparation for the work of investi-
cation.
Miss Ferguson was formerly a stu
dent at Wellesley, and afterward was
an assistant in botany for three years
at the same college. She entered Cor
nell last year and at the suggestion of
A Iii Of
ical department. undertook the invest-
cation of certain phases in the devel-
opment of pines. She will be graduated
with the degree of B. S. next summer
and will afterward proceed with her
work with a view to get a doctors de-
gree. Last summer she was invited by
the Botanical society of America to
read paper at its meeting in Boston
on the results she had obtained in her
work I'D al that time,