THE FLOKAL WORLD AIO) GARDEN GUIDE. 



137 



will be enumerated and described presently. Let us now glance at 

 the structural peculiarities of the flowers. 



The male flower, Fig. 1^ consists of four red sepals or petals (it 

 cannot matter what they are called), and four stamens on filaments 

 of equal length. The female flower, Pig. 2, 

 has four petaline divisions of the same kind 

 as the male, but in place of four stamens it 

 has one pistil, the stigma of which is cylin- 

 drical, and the pollen shed by the staraens 

 of the male flower is applied, at the proper 

 time and in the proper manner, to the 

 stigmas of the female flowers. The result 

 is, on the female plants, an abundant 

 production of ovate berries nearly as large 

 as rose-hips and of a deep red colour, as re- 

 presented in Fig. 4. These berries consist 

 of single seeds enveloped in a scarlet rind. ^ig. i. 



"When cut in half the embryo plant is 



seen near the base. Mr. Staudish was the first to produce a crop 

 of berries, and amongst a number of seedlings raised by him, one 



has produced flowers in which there 

 are both male and female organs; 

 that is to say, this particular plant 

 is apparently hermaphrodite. It has 

 not, however, so far as we are aware, 

 been fertilized by its own pollen, and 

 therefore we cannot as yet describe 

 it as a true hermaphrodite. jS'ever- 

 theless, we may hope for herma- 

 phrodites which will be self-fertili- 

 zing, as are the flowers of the wild 

 Fig. 2. rose, and ten thousand other subjects 



that produce both male and female 

 organs in the same flower, for in the male aucuba the undeveloped 

 germs of the stigma are present, and some accident may result in the 

 development of both organs in the same flower. A flower from Mr. 

 Standish's presumed hermaphrodite is represented in Fig. 3. 



To cultivate the aucuba is easy enough. It will grow in almost 

 any soil and situation. But to grow it as a 

 conservatory plant it must have the care that 

 is usually bestowed on nearly hardy subjects. 

 A free, rather light, but good soil is requisite, 

 consisting in great part of loam with thoroughly 

 decayed manure and leaf-mould added. Many 

 of the new varieties are far superior in beauty 

 of leafage to the common form of the plant 

 with which we are familiar in gardens, and ^^' 



therefore are well worth growing in pots until they attain so large 

 a size as not to be conveniently dealt with in that way, and may 

 be planted out to make garden trees. As the new varieties are 

 expensive, a word on their propagation may be of service. The safest 



