ABSTRACT
The function of pollen grains and their role in pollination and fertilization was known to ancient Assysrians. Palynology is the scientific study of pollen and spores. It includes not only present day but also fossil examples. The study of fossilized plant material is part of the botanical discipline known as palaeobotany. Palynology is not only a scientific discipline in its own right, but also a subdiscipline within pollen analysis and aerobiology. Pollen and spores are frequently dispersed from their points of origin and carried on wind currents thus forming a component, the biospora of particulate matter in the air. Pollen grains are microspores, which carry the male genetic component gametes of the plants, which produce them. Palynology as a modern scientific discipline is not old although the interest in and study of small biological particles such as spores and their possible role in the life of plants, extends back to at least classical times.
