I. K. VASIL, in his communication under this title in Nature of September 24, p. 1135, states that “this is the first report of a successful germination of the pollen of Gramineae in vitro”. May I point out that the germination of pollen of different varieties of Saccharum officinarum was carried out as a routine practice by the Sugarcane Research Station in Mauritius as far back as 1930. The methods used are described by Glendon Hill1 and de Sornay2. Germination tests were discontinued later, as it was found that there was poor correlation between germination of pollen in vitro and number of sugar cane seedlings afterwards produced3.