Fig. 60.

that, on the whole, it will be found wiser to obtain them from seedsmen of reliable character, whose interests are also promoted by the sale of really good seeds, and who may be assumed to understand and apply to their production those principles upon which their excellence depends.

CHAPTER VII.

Fertilization, in perfect, monoecious, and dioecious Flowers.-Necessary to the Production of perfect Seed.-Modes of natural and artificial Fertilization. Production of new Varieties of Vegetables.

a, The Apple Blossom, a common perfect or bisexual Flower.
b, Cucumber Blossoms, a monœcious Plant.

1, The Fertilizer, or false Blossom.

2, The fertile Blossom attached to the young Fruit.
c, The Fertilizer, or false Hop-vine, with its blossoms,
d, The fertile Hop-vine, its blossoms being hid between the
scales of the "Hop,"

a diœcious
Plant.

The following figures present the arrangement of the various floral organs without their petals, and are inserted for farther and clearer illustration.

All flowers have a sexual character, that is, they are furnished with fertilizing or fertile organs, or both, known in botany as stamens and pistils. For the most part, these organs grow together in each individual blossom, as in the apple and all our common fruit-trees, the flowers of which are perfect or bisexual. Flowers of this class are distinguished in botany by the number and peculiar character of these organs, which vary in the different Linnæan orders from a single stamen and pistil to an indefinite number of each (Figs. 60 a, 61, 1).

In some cases they reside in separate blossoms, though upon the same root, as in corn, melons, cucumbers, &c., Figs. 60 b, 61, 2; the topgallant in corn, what are called false blossoms in cucumbers, and melons, the catkins of the birch and hazel, &c., being only the fertilizers, which of themselves bear no fruit. These plants are called in botany "monoecious," or of one house. In others they are borne upon separate roots, as in

the hop, &c., Figs. 60 c, d, 61, 3, 4; asparagus, spinach, the papaw also, and persimmon, often the sassafras, and some varieties of our wild grape-vines, are of this character. These are known as "dioecious," or of two houses, the whole plant bearing the fertilizers being fruitless.

In mere seed or grain-bearing plants, the fertilization of the fruit-bearing flower or its equivalent organs-for some plants do not produce flowers, properly so called-is absolutely necessary to obtaining product. Thus, where single spears or hills of corn stand far apart from others, the ears never fill, because, whichever way the wind may draw, the fertilizing powder, as it falls from the topgallant, is carried away, and but little of it settles upon and fertilizes the silk, each thread of which connects with an incipient grain, and hence the failure.

In the various fruit-bearing plants, the fertilization of the fruit-bearing flower is equally essential to the production of perfect seed, and generally it may be regarded as important to the formation of fruit, inasmuch as the latter, being a mere appendage or covering for the former, may be supposed likely to fail with it; and such, in general, is the fact. The first dropping of young fruit, which, even after an abundant show of blossoms, sometimes extends to the whole orchard crop, is, I believe, mainly due to the imperfection or total failure of the fertilization, whether this arises from drought and glaring sunshine, from unseasonable cold, an inopportune storm, or from other less manifest causes; all such dropped fruit is seedless or germless. But at least a partial crop of fruit may be obtained where this fertilization has not been effected, as we sometimes find apples without seeds in the core; and in the larger vegetable fruits, as melons, &c., which are mainly results of cultivation, it is easily, conceivable that, without fertilization of the flower, fruit may be produced, yielding, however, only shriveled and abortive seeds, or such as, if apparently full formed, yet actually lack the essential germ, and are, of course, without vitality. The "fig-apple," as it is called by Duhamel, which has only pistils, being destitute of stamens, as well as without petals, bears fair and tolerable fruit, but never yields seeds. In these exceptional cases of fruitful nonfertil

ization it commonly happens that the fruit loses size, though it does not entirely perish. Of this the white Corinth or Kismishi grape, from which the seedless Sultana raisins are made, furnishes an interesting illustration. Its flowers are perfect or bisexual, yet, from some cause as yet undiscovered, it never produces seed, and, although its clusters are of fair size, the fruit upon them is not much larger than common currants; but, as we might expect in connection with this defective reproduction in the ordinary channel, the luxuriance and vigor of its plant-growth is prodigious.

INTERMIXTURE.

From this sexual character in flowers arises the possibility and danger of intermixture of kinds. This, however, is limited to species that are kindred to one another, which is generally indicated by a certain similarity in the appearance or construction of their flowers. Thus the varieties of cabbage, turnip, rape, and probably radish, all bearing cruciform flowers, readily intermix, when blossoming at the same time in close proximity, as in small private gardens, or whenever planted carelessly near to each other for seeding. Cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, &c., are equally liable to intermixture in similar circumstances. The product of seeds so raised becomes a mongrel and usually worthless combination; but cabbages and beets, or cucumbers and onions, &c., &c., never intermix, there being no congruity or affiliation between them. Certain plants. also, which seem to possess this congruity, are not known to intermix, as the apple and pear, the currant and gooseberry, &c. The reason of this it does not seem easy to find.

In many flowers the organs of fertility are comparatively obscure or hidden by their peculiar arrangement; yet intermixture occurs readily among them, as in the various kinds of peas, and bush-beans, many new varieties of which have originated incidentally through careless planting or the sowing of mingled seed.

Sometimes the intermixture of kinds, whether by natural or artificial fertilization, is imperfect, and the new variety continues for years to be unsettled in character; or, instead of one

new variety, we obtain two, or even three, by easy selection, as in the case of the black, and white, and common mercer potatoes, which, though differing in appearance, are nearly similar in character, and all from one stock.

MODES OF NATURAL FERTILIZATION.

Natural fertilization is effected in flowers containing both the fertilizing and fertile organs by such an arrangement of the parts as secures the deposition of the pollen or fructifying powder shed by the former upon the latter, sometimes as it descends, and at others as it ascends, and in some flowers it is scattered upon them by an explosive force or bursting. In monoecious and dioecious plants the pollen is shed usually in great abundance by the fertilizer, and, floating in the air, or borne by the wind, aided perhaps by magnetic or chemical attraction, finds its appropriate place. This may be seen at once in any corn-lot when the ears are in full silk, the exposed end of each fibre of which is then dusted with the powder from the topgallant. Bees and other insects also carry the pollen upon them from flower to flower as they seek their food, and thus accomplish the same end.

MODES OF ARTIFICIAL FERTILIZATION.

Flowers of vegetables and of fruits are artificially fertilized by precisely similar processes, which may be described as follows:

In all perfect flowers—that is, those in which the fertilizing and the fertile organs reside in the same blossom-watch carefully the time of the natural opening of the flower you wish to fertilize, and just as, or before it fully opens, insert the points of a very small pair of scissors, and clip off and carry away all the stamens, leaving the pistils alone, entire, and uninjured. When this is accomplished, take a newly-opened but full flower of the kind with which you desire to fertilize; cut off, if necessary, all the petals or flower-leaves, and place it within the blossom to be fertilized; or, without removing its petals, place it as a cap over the former in such a manner that its stamens may surround, or at least be near to the pistil.