ANNUAL MEETING, 119 



formed in a great many cases; still a very careful and honest experimenter 

 should do the work. We have done a good deal in crossing grapes at Lock- 

 port, and havo very little difliculty. The one thing to secure in this case is 

 the impossibility of insect intervention, by carefully bagging the flowers to be 

 crossed and using the pollen which is desired. It is quite wonderful how long 

 the pollen can be preserved and retain its fructifying qualities. It has been 

 kept eighteen years in perfect condition. 



Prof. Beal : I havo kept pollen some time and used it with success, but 

 have no experience that would corroborate the last statement of Mr. Hoag. 



President Lyon: I take this of)portunity to state that latterly I have made 

 something of a specialty of observing •strawberries, and have yet to find a 

 variety that is strictly pistillate. The blossoms of tho.-e varieties, so-called, 

 range all the way from liaving almost no stamens to flowers with a perfect 

 set of the male organs. 



Mr. Beecher, of Flushing, inquired about the details of cross-fertilization. 



Prof. Beal responded by explaining the position of the male and female 

 organs upon various plants; gave an account of how ho had experimented 

 witli Indian corn; said that in strawberries crossing was very easily accom- 

 plished by simply planting the two varieties to be employed together. Mr. 

 Hathaway, who originated the Michigan and Bidwell, accomplishes his work 

 in this way. Grapes fertilize before the flower opens; so the cap must be 

 removed from the blossom and the stamens -carefully cut away, for the grape 

 generally self-fertilizes. As soon as stamens are cut away a paper bag is put 

 over the flowers, so as to prevent any pollen from entering except that 

 artificially introduced, which should be done in a day or two, the pollen hav- 

 ing been gathered from the parent desired and carefully placed m a corked 

 bottle. This latter process is simple when you know that the whole stamen 

 can be cut off and dropped into the bottle. A bursting stamen can be taken 

 •with forceps and the pollen dusted on pistil desired. The crossing of wheat 

 and clover is a very difficult matter, and requires patience and skill. Apples 

 are easily crossed. The flowers should be visited before they open and the 

 twenty stamens carefully cut away from the central blossom in the cluster of 

 blossoms that grow together; remove also the blossoms that are near the one 

 to be manipulated, and in a day or two touch the five little stigmas of the flower 

 selected with the pollen from stamens desired to be used. The work is done 

 very readily, and apples are about the best fruit for a novice to begin on. 



Some one inquired of the professor if changes in the character of the fruit 

 were readily secured the first year by crossing. 



Prof. Beal: In some tnings change is effectual the first year. Corn is an 

 illustration. In the Cucurbitacese we often learn of changes worked the first 

 season, by the influence, say of tlie pollen of a pumpkin upon a squash, a 

 squash upon a melon, etc. But many varieties in fruits, noticed and attrib- 

 uted to crossing, will scarcely be satisfactorily accounted for upon that theory. 

 Often peculiar russet stripes are fornu'd upon smooth red apples, and people 

 say they are caused by the pollen of a Russet apple having fallen on one of the 

 stigmns of the blossom. Dr. Gray, in commenting upon this popular notion, 

 refutes it by showing that the russet stripes are not limited, by the lines which 

 divide the different parts of the apple represented in the blossom, by one style 

 and stigma with its corresponding [)art of the ovary. I think tliese russet 

 stripes are simply spots, like a varigated branch on a fuchsia or geranium. I 

 don't believe the tx)llen in crossing will affect the immediate fruit, but experi- 

 ment may convince me to the contrary. 



