EXPERIMENT WITH A PLANT 151 



flower. It is, therefore, not wise to use as pollen- 

 bearer a flower which has opened. 



Having selected a bud of a suitable age, the plan 

 I adopt is to pluck it from the plant on which it is 

 growing, to pull off the sepals, the standard and the 

 wings, and to snip a piece about the size of a large 

 pin's head from the extreme tip of the carina with the 

 scissors. This flower may, for convenience, be called 

 the " male flower." After this operation the scissors 

 should be dipped in the methylated spirit, so as to 

 kill any pollen grains that may be sticking to them, 

 and so avoid mixing them with the pollen of the next 

 flower similarly operated on. 



The female flower should now be held between 

 the thumb and finger of the left hand, and its pistil 

 thrust through the entrance in the tip of the carina 

 of the "male flower" made by snipping off its tip, 

 into the mass of pollen which is just inside, if the 

 anthers have burst. There is no difficulty in telling 

 whether they have or not. If they have, the pistil 

 when withdrawn will be seen to be yellow with pollen ; 

 if they have not, it will bear no trace of pollen ; which 

 means that too young a bud was taken; in which 

 case it must be thrown away, and an older one 

 procured. 



When the pistil of the flower which is to function 

 as female parent has been thoroughly covered with 

 pollen, the part of the carina in front of the tear 

 made across it, which was slipped aside to set the 

 pistil and anthers free, may be put back in its natural 

 position so that it encloses the pistil ; the wings 



