Pollen-grains in the Air

Abstract

I AM very sorry to find that, owing to my absence from home at the time, a question addressed to me by Mr. A. W. Bennett, in NATURE, vol. ix. p. 485, has escaped my notice hitherto and remained unanswered. Mr. Bennett, alluding to my letter on “Microscopic Examination of Air” (NATURE, vol. ix. p. 439), asks on what ground I refer the “triangular pollen” captured on my slide to the birch and hazel. The identification resulted from comparison under the microscope. The pollen-grains which I obtained from catkins of birch and hazel exhibited three conspicuous equidistant prominences (pores) giving each grain a triangular appearance. I cannot now remember if this appearance was equally distinct before and after immersion in glycerine: probably there was a change of shape due to osmosis. I confess that I used the word “triangular” not in its strict geometrical meaning, but in order to mark a feature which distinguished the pollen-grains of birch and hazel from those of poplar. Referring to my notes, I must admit that the shape of the grains which I identified with birch pollen would have been more accurately described as “spherical with three large protuberances.“