HORTICULTURE AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING, 143 



pollen might lodge in it and be unintentionally applied to the stigma. If 

 the pollen was carried any distance, even a few feet, the flower was placed in 

 a tin cup with a tightly-fitting cover, and the pollen removed from the 

 anthers at the moment of its application. Before the tin cup was used for 

 other flowers it was thoroughly washed. I consider it unsafe, in critical ex- 

 periments, to hold in the hand the flower which is to furnish the pollen while 

 the operator is emasculating the other flower, especially if under a tree full 

 of blossoms. In short, is is nearly as important to protect the anthers from 

 receiving foreign pollen as it is to protect the stigma. As soon as the pollen 

 was applied the flower was securely and tightly covered with a thin manilla 

 bag which was left on four or five days. A label was attached to the crossed 

 flower, hung upon its stem, and at the same time exact notes of the time, 

 place and conditions of the operation were made. Even if the label were lost 

 or was designedly removed, it was easy to identify the flower. In the case 

 of pears and apples I clip off the flower bud so low as to remove the sepals; 

 as a consequence, the crossed fruit can be recognized at any time during the 

 season by the absence of the "calyx." With all the care possible many 

 -crosses will fail to take. Just the reason for such failure, in plants which 

 have an affinity for each other, it is not easy to determine. I am convinced, 

 however, that in the case of annual plants at least, a protracted drouth inter- 

 feres with fertilization. I was especially impressed this year with this fact 

 in the cucurbits and daturas. In fact, squash growers know that vines do 

 not set fruits so profusely in a drouth as at other times. 



About twenty crosses and hybridizations were made upon apples, only eight 

 of which were successful. May 11 five flowers of Hyslop crab were crossed 

 with Oldenburgh. Four fruits set, but in a month two were destroyed by 

 some means unknown. The two remaining fruits ripened, but although the 

 cross was so violent, they differed in no respect from other fruits upon the 

 tree. These fruits are before me as I write (Nov. 4), in a good state of pres- 

 ervation, showing that crossing with an early apple did not influence their 

 keeping qualities. 



Five flowers of the Chicago crab were crossed with Sweet Romanite, a 

 winter apple. Four of the pistils were removed in each flower, the remain- 

 ing one being fertilized. All the fruits set, although one was feeble from the 

 first, and soon fell. An examination of this specimen showed that none of the 

 cells had been fertilized. Two of the remaining four matured, but they 

 differed in no respect from the other crabs upon the tree. Singularly enough, 

 however, seeds developed in but one cell, showing that each style is a means 

 of fertilizing its own cell alone. The mature fruits were somewhat unsym- 

 metrical, being a trifle larger upon the side which bore the seeds. These 

 fruits, with seeds intact, are now peserved in alcohol. 



Reciprocal hybridizations were made between apples and the flowering crab, 

 Pyrus floribunda, but none of them were successful. A Northern Spy 

 flower was hybridized, and for a time the operation appeared to be success- 

 ful, but the young fruit soon lost vitality and gave evidence that fertiliza- 

 tion had not taken place. At apple picking time, in September, this fruit, 

 dried and shriveled, and no more than a half inch in diameter, still clung to 

 the tree. 



A few crosses were performed between pears, one of which was success- 

 ful. This was a Louise Bonne crossed with Howell. The resultinff fruit 

 was very singular, being more slender than Louise Bonne, with a very long, 



