170 

 RAISING- NEW VARIETIES OP ZONAL GERANIUMS. 



CHAPTEll III. 



'HERE are plenty of flowers to be found now, and the 

 pollen is potent. I shall say very few words upon the 

 subject immediately before me, but the practitioner will 

 do well, unless far advanced already, to heed every 

 word. If you look at a flower just opened, or but half 

 open, you will, in the majority of instances, see abundance of pollen. 

 It is red or yellow in colour, evidently granular, and when touched 

 breaks into fine dust, a quantity of which may easily be taken up 

 by means of a camel's-hair pencil. Let us suppose you do not touch 

 the flower, and that you again look at it the next day. Probably, if 

 the weather is hot and sunny, it will by this time have shed its 

 pollen, and you will observe in the centre of the flower an elegant 

 construction consisting of five recurved horn-like processes springing 

 from a central stem. These are the stigmas or female organs, on 

 which the pollen, taken from the flower which you have selected for 

 a father, is to be placed. If, proceeding from these premises, you 

 will pull a few flowers to pieces, you will discover that the pollen is 

 borne in club-like masses or stamens, on stems or filaments of 

 variable lengths. There are, or should be, ten stamens in all: but 

 we seldom find so many ; and speaking from my own experience, it 

 never happens that all ten are productive of pollen. The outer ones 

 are the shortest, and usually later in ripening their pollen. 



These papers would be wearisome and prolix if I were to attempt 

 to prove everything. Allow me, therefore, simply to assert that it 

 is a most rare thing in nature for any flower to be fertilized by its 

 own pollen. One proof of this I can give by the assertion of a 

 general fact, that it is a most rare occurrence for the stamens and 

 stigmas of any one particular flower to be ripe at the same time. I 

 foresee a difficulty in your mind as to this doctrine. You call to 

 mind that particular varieties do actually reproduce themselves to a 

 great extent, which is presumptive evidence that their flowers were 

 fertilized by their own pollen. I can explain the matter in a word. 

 Flower No. 1, on any plant, usually produces no seed ; flowers 2, 

 3, and 4 are likely to leave no issue ; but at the 3rd or 4th, we may 

 expect the formation of seed to begin, because the pollen of No. 4 

 is likely to fall on or be carried to (by insects, say) the stigmas of 

 No. 3. Just observe how common is the case that the first flowers of 

 all kinds commonly pass away without producing seed. One question 

 to the point, — whoever saw the first flower on a geranium or a holly- 

 hock result in seed, unless it was artificially fertilized ? Now to 

 business again. 



The usual practice is to select the flower that is to produce seed, 

 and cut away all the stamens as soon as the petals begin to open ; 

 that is to say, before the pollen is ripe. You must learn to do it by 

 practice. You will of course spoil a few of the first flowers you 

 operate upon. Experience has taught me that there is no need for 



