1857.] Sexuality of Plan's — Fecundation, ITi/lridization. 339 



as seedlings are now obtained the chances for a superior fruit 

 are against us by a feari'ul odds. The fickle winds, the capricious 

 insects, may, or may not, carry in quantity and quality, the fertiliz- 

 ing dust from the best sources to give excellence to fruit and vigor 

 to tree, but man is provided with the knowledge and ability to 

 do this with a good degree of certainty. In ten thousand ovules, 

 fertilized in the ordinary way, who would wonder should there be no 

 improvement of the seed originating therefrom ; in most there will 

 be found, by experience, positive degeneracy. It was from millions 

 of strawberry seeds sown and germinated, that twelve plants only 

 were taken as worthy of cultivation, among which Longworth's 

 prolific, or number five, and McAvoy's superior, or number twelve, 

 stand pre-eminent. The former a hermaphrodite and the latter a 

 pure pistilate plant. No one in these days thinks of trusting to a 

 seedling apple or peach, yet it is from the seedling alone we are 

 to expect new and improved varieties. And the necessity of turn- 

 ing attention to seedlings must every day appear the more obvious, 

 as our standard fruits are fast filling up the cycle of their existence, 

 and fast running out. The White Bellfleur, Rhode Island Grreening 

 and Newtown Pippin among our apples, may be mentioned as 

 examples. They are by no means the apples they once were. 



It is to call attention to this important subject, of the improve- 

 ment of our grains, fruits, vegetables, etc., that we have ventured 

 to discuss the subject under consideration, believing that in the 

 proper understanding and application of its principles the most 

 important results would be secured. To the uninitiated a little 

 more particularity of description is here deemed necessary. 



The particular organs whose functions we are contemplating, viz : 

 the Stamen and the Pistil, occupy the interior of the flower or 

 corolla. The stamens, or male organs, are terminated by summits of a 

 vascular texture, called anthers ; the powder which covers and sticks 

 slightly to them is called pollen. The pistil occupies an interior or 

 central position where both organs are in the same flower, and are 

 composed of the ovary, the style, and the stigma. The ovary en- 

 closes the germ ; the embryo of the seed. This embryo can only be 

 developed by the action of the pollen. This style may be called the 

 tubular prolongation of the ovary ; it supports the stigma, which is 

 the glandular part that receives the fecundating influence of the 

 pollen. The stamen efi"ects, through the agency of this pollen, the 

 fertilization of the embryo seed contained in the pistil. As to the 



