▪ I. pollen, n.
(ˈpɒlɪn)
[a. L. pollen, -inem fine flour, fine dust, in sense from mod.L. (Linn.).]
† 1. Fine flour or meal; fine powder. Obs.
| 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. xvi. 18 As well of pollen, as of other vitailes. 1601 Holland Pliny xviii. x. I. 564 Wheat flower called Pollen. 1620 Venner Via Recta i. 17 Pollen is the purest part of the meale, that is, the finest part of the flower. 1730–6 Bailey (folio), Pollen,..a sort of fine bran. |
2. Bot. The fine granular or powdery substance, produced by and discharged from the anther of a flower, constituting the male element destined for the fertilization of the ovules.
| [1751 Linnæus Philos. Bot. 56 Pollen est pulvis vegetabilium appropriato liquore madefactus.] 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. i. iv. (1765) 10 The Pollen, Meal, contained within the Antheræ, is a fine Dust secreted therein. 1792 J. E. Smith Eng. Bot. 43 Papaver hybridum..flowers..deep crimson, or purplish, pollen bright blue. 1828 Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. II. 355 Furnished with a tuft of hairs proper for collecting the pollen of flowers. 1881 Lubbock in Nature XXIV. 404/2 He proved that flowers fertilised with pollen from the other form yield more seed than if fertilised with pollen of the same form. |
3. Comb., as
pollen-content(s),
pollen-zone;
pollen-bearing,
pollen-covered,
pollen-dated,
pollen-devouring,
pollen-dusted,
pollen-eating,
pollen-free,
pollen-like adjs.;
pollen analysis = palynology; hence
pollen analyst, a scientist who uses the techniques of pollen analysis;
pollen-analytic(al) adjs.;
pollen-analytically adv.;
pollen-basket, a hollow structure on the leg of a bee, adapted for carrying pollen;
= basket 7,
corbicula (
Syd. Soc. Lex. 1895);
pollen-brush, a set of hairs forming a fringe on the
pollen-basket;
pollen-catarrh = pollen-fever (
Syd. Soc. Lex.);
pollen-cell, (
a) a cell which develops into a pollen-grain, or forms part of one; (
b)
= pollen-sac; (
c) a cell in a honeycomb in which pollen is stored;
pollen-chamber, the cavity in which the pollen is deposited at the tip of the ovule in Gymnosperms;
pollen count, an index of the quantity of pollen in the air, obtained by counting the grains collected on a given area of a coated glass plate exposed for twenty-four hours, and published as a warning to those allergic to it; also, an indication of the frequency of pollen in an archæological site; also
fig.;
pollen diagram, a sequence of pollen spectra from one site, showing changes in the frequencies of various types of pollen;
pollen-fever = hay-fever;
pollen-grain, each of the grains of which pollen consists (usually a single cell, sometimes two or more united, of varying form and size in different plants, and having two coats, the
intine and
extine);
pollen-granule, each of the ultimate granules contained in a pollen-grain; also
= pollen-grain;
pollen graph = pollen diagram;
pollen index = pollen count;
pollen-mass = pollinium;
pollen mother cell, a cell in a seed plant which undergoes meiosis to yield four pollen grains;
pollen parent, the plant from which pollen is taken to fertilize another plant in an attempt to produce a hybrid;
pollen-paste, a substance consisting of pollen mixed with a little honey, made by bees for feeding their larvæ (
Syd. Soc. Lex.);
pollen-plate, a flat or hollow surface fringed with hairs, occurring on the legs or body of bees, used for carrying pollen (
cf. pollen-basket);
pollen profile = pollen diagram;
pollen-sac, each of the (usually four) cavities or loculi of an anther, in which the pollen is contained;
pollen spectrum, the relative frequencies of the various types of pollen in a single sample;
pollen-sporangium, a name for the antheridium in club-mosses, which contains the pollen-spores;
pollen-spore, a name for the microspores in club-mosses, as analogous to pollen-grains;
pollen-tube, a tube formed by protrusion of the intine of a pollen-grain when deposited upon the stigma, which penetrates the style so as to convey the fertilizing substance to the ovule.
| 1924 G. Erdtman in Jrnl. Linn. Soc.: Bot. XLVI. 450 The study of micro-fossils (and especially of fossil pollen-grains), upon which von Post's method of *pollen-analysis is based. 1935 Discovery Apr. 100/1 The methods of pollen-analysis..enable one to know of the afforestation and in consequence of the climate of the period during which any particular stratum in a peat deposit was laid down. 1944, 1958 [see palynology]. 1973 Microscopy XXXII. 321 Erdtman prepared and presented the first doctoral thesis ever to be based on pollen analysis. |
| 1943 G. Erdtman Introd. Pollen Analysis i. 1 Still more remarkable appear the performances accomplished by the *pollen analyst today. 1973 Microscopy XXXII. 320 Gustav Lagerheim (1860–1926) was one of the earliest pollen analysts. |
| 1949 Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. LX. 1359/2 Events..may have been contemporaneous in the astronomic as well as the *pollen-analytic sense. |
| 1946 F. E. Zeuner Dating Past iii. 59 Further important remarks on the principles and system of *pollen-analytical datings are included in a great many papers. 1976 Nature 24 June 628/1 Some new information..has been gleaned..as a result of a pollen analytical study of upper Miocene lignites. |
| 1936 Proc. Prehistoric Soc. II. 146 One may quote an instance from the Baltic..*pollen-analytically dated to Boreal times. 1946 F. E. Zeuner Dating Past iv. 78 A good many localities have been studied pollen-analytically. |
| 1860 Chambers' Encycl. I. 799/1 (Bee) Neither males nor queens have wax-pockets, nor have they *pollen-baskets. |
| 1946 F. E. Zeuner Dating Past iv. 80 Nilsson has studied the connexion of *pollen-bearing deposits with raised beaches. |
| 1900 Cunningham Sexual Dimorphism v. 261 In the hive bee the *pollen-brush on the legs is wanting in the queen, but present in the worker. |
| 1857 Henfrey Elem. Bot. §928 Compound pollen-grains, consisting of a number of *pollen-cells permanently coherent. 1875 Bennett & Dyer Sachs' Bot. 440 The four young pollen-cells are now freed by the rapid absorption of the cell-wall which surrounds and separates them. 1888 Chambers' Encycl. II. 22/2 A pollen-cell is (frequently at least) sealed with honey, and over this a thin cream-like pellicle is formed, which can be pushed aside for the deposition of more honey. |
| 1887 tr. Strasburger's Bot. 304 The nucellar apex is hollowed out in order to receive the pollen-grains, giving rise to the so-called *pollen-chamber. 1898 Ibid. ii. ii. 438 [The ovules of Cycas] are atropous, and provided..with a cavity, the pollen-chamber, in which the pollen-grains..accumulate preparatory to fertilisation. |
| 1946 F. E. Zeuner Dating Past iii. 57 The *pollen-contents of a peat are more or less characteristic of the tree-associations that grew in the neighbourhood of the spot under investigation. 1954 S. Piggott Neolithic Cultures i. 3 The evidence for the natural conditions of vegetation in Atlantic and Sub-Boreal times is based most reliably on the pollen-content of stratified peats. |
| [1873 C. J. Blackley Experimental Researches on Catarrhus æstivus iv. 122 After being exposed for twenty-four hours, each slip was placed under the microscope, and any deposit it contained was carefully examined, and the number of pollen grains counted.] 1926 Koessler & Durham in Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. LXXXVI. 1205/1 For the air study..differential *pollen counts were made daily. 1944 Urbach & Gottlieb Allergy xix. 607 In order to become acquainted with the local flora, the physician should undertake pollen counts himself. 1965 Punch 15 Sept. 375/2 Throughout the summer, New York newspapers forecast daily..a ‘pollen count’ for hay-fever victims. 1975 G. W. Dimbleby in R. Bruce-Mitford Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial I. i. 68 (heading) Soil under ship-barrow pollen counts. 1978 Times 7 July 2/8 The pollen count issued in London yesterday by the Asthma Research Council was one, very low. |
| 1936 Proc. Prehistoric Soc. II. 239 The forest culture of S.E. Britain, best known from the *pollen-dated site of Lower Halstow, had diverged very markedly. |
| 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. iv. (1860) 92 Carried..by the *pollen-devouring insects from flower to flower. |
| 1924 G. Erdtman in Jrnl. Linn. Soc.: Bot. XLVI. 453 By means of the percentage numbers a *pollen-diagram is constructed. 1954 S. Piggott Neolithic Cultures i. 4 The pollen diagrams constructed from stratified peats in many parts of the British Isles show a consistent evolution of forest assemblages. 1973 Proctor & Yeo Pollination of Flowers viii. 276 The pollen diagrams from different sites show striking correspondences in the course of events. |
| 1883 G. Allen in Knowledge 8 June 336/2 *Pollen-eating flies, weevils, and caterpillars. |
| 1887 Sir A. Clark in Lancet 11 June 1169/1 The epithets of ‘hay fever’, ‘hay asthma’, ‘*pollen fever’, ‘rose cold’, and ‘peach cold’. |
| 1963 New Yorker 15 June 117 Heated swimming pool... *Pollen-free air. 1975 G. W. Dimbleby in R. Bruce-Mitford Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial I. i. 55 This pollen profile appears to have developed in a pollen-free sand deposit. This would accord with the suggestion that at some time during or since the Anglo-Saxon period the soil was truncated down to the pollen-free subsoil. |
| 1835 Henslow Princ. Bot. §262 The inner membrane of the *pollen grain. 1872 Oliver Elem. Bot. i. i. 8 The fine powder is the pollen, and each of its globular cells is a pollen-grain. |
| 1835 Henslow Princ. Bot. §262 A sort of rude sack, termed a ‘pollen tube’,..contains a liquid, the ‘fovilla’, in which are dispersed a number of very minute ‘*pollen granules’. |
| 1959 J. D. Clark Prehist. Southern Afr. vi. 160 The grasslands of our Central Plateau Region which, the *pollen-graphs from Florisbad tell us, must have still been open country even at the height of the pluvial. |
| 1973 ‘D. Jordan’ Nile Green ii. 12 Most of us have hay fever and the *pollen index was high. |
| 1863 Grosart Small Sins 83, I brushed off the fine *pollen-like powder of its wings. |
| 1847 W. E. Steele Field Bot. 166 Glands of the stalks of the *pollen-masses naked. |
| 1884 Jrnl. R. Microsc. Soc. 714 We should have a case similar to that seen in the *pollen-mother-cells of Fritillaria persica. 1889 Bot. Gaz. XIV. 109 If any person has experienced difficulty in obtaining pollen mother-cells in excellent condition for study, their attention is called to the young anthers of Negundo aceroides Moench. 1926 Ibid. LXXXI. 154 In a given loculus of an anther the pollen mother cells of the apple show little variation in stage of development. 1976 Bell & Coombe tr. Strasburger's Textbk. Bot. 39 (caption) Prophase of the first meiotic divisions of a pollen mother cell. |
| 1910 Nat. Rose Society's Rose Ann. 50 Place the top of the finger upon the anthers of the variety it is proposed to use as the *pollen parent. 1933 Lily Year-bk. 173 The plant showed no trace of the pollen parent and was discarded. 1976 Lilies 36 The plant with narrow leaves had a long chromosome..of a type found in the pollen parent. |
| 1899 Cambr. Nat. Hist. VI. 12 In the species with *pollen plates, the pollen is made into a mass of a clay-like consistence. |
| 1967 M. J. Coe Ecology Alpine Zone Mt. Kenya 52 If the *pollen profile is correlated with a time scale..it has been possible..to demonstrate an interesting sequence of vegetation zone depression. 1972 Computers & Humanities VII. 40 Pollen analysis is now being aided by the computer, either to compile and print the pollen profiles..or to perform statistical analysis of pollen data. |
| 1875 Bennett & Dyer Sachs' Bot. 426 The surrounding layers of tissue become developed into the wall of the *pollen-sac. Ibid. 433. |
| 1924 G. Erdtman in Jrnl. Linn. Soc.: Bot. XLVI. 453 The relative frequency-numbers..constitute the *pollen-spectrum of the sample. 1946 F. E. Zeuner Dating Past iii. 59 A circle with sectors giving the frequency of the most important species in the pollen-spectrum can be inserted on a map. 1977 New Phytologist LXXVIII. 711 The sequence of four pollen spectra from the Coralline Crag shows no great variation from one level to the next. |
| 1861 Bentley Man. Bot. i. v. 375 The antheridia or *pollen-sporangia are somewhat reniform, two-valved cases..containing a large number of small spores (microspores), in which spermatozoids are ultimately produced. |
| Ibid. 372 The antheridia contain a number of small cells... These..are sometimes called *pollen-spores or small spores, while the large germinating spore is called the ovulary-spore or large spore. 1835 *Pollen-tube [see pollen-granule]. 1875 Huxley & Martin Elem. Biol. (1883) 71 A pollen grain deposited on the stigma, sends out a hypha-like prolongation, the pollen tube, which elongates, passes down the style, and eventually reaches the micropyle of an ovule. |
| 1946 F. E. Zeuner Dating Past 389, 23 finds..dated according to *pollen zones. 1973 P. A. Colinvaux Introd. Ecol. vii. 100 A nine or ten pollen-zone sequence..named in Roman numerals. |
Hence
ˈpollen v. trans., to convey pollen to, to pollinate; to cover or sprinkle with pollen;
ˈpollened (
-ɪnd)
a., containing pollen.
| 1877 Lanier Bee 42 He beareth starry stuff about his wings To pollen thee and sting thee fertile. 1880 Tennyson Voy. Maeldune v, And we wallow'd in beds of lilies..Till each like a golden image was pollen'd from head to feet. 1895 A. Austin in Blackw. Mag. Apr. 517 She made The gold of the pollened palm to float On her budding bosom. |
▪ II. pollen variant of
pollan,
pullen.