94 TALKS AFIELD. 



plant ; it is akin to the in-breeding of farm 

 animals. The uniformity with which all 

 flowers favor cross-fertilization is proof that 

 a foreign pollen is needful to insure the best 

 results in the production of seeds. Darwin 

 experimented with plants grown from seeds 

 produced by cross-fertilization and those pro- 

 duced by close-fertilization, and the former 

 were the most vigorous. When there is 

 cross-fertilization between different species of 

 plants, as between apples and pears, or wheat 

 and rye, the offspring of the seeds produced 

 are called hybrids. Jn common parlance this 

 term is incorrectly used to denote the off- 

 spring of two plants of the same species. 



Hidden Flowers. 

 The blue " hooded violet," Viola cucul- 

 lata, so named from its peculiar habit of 

 folding the lower portion of its leaves up- 

 wards and inwards, is common in shady 

 glades all over the North. Its large flowers 

 are bright and attractive. In a certain 

 shady nook there is a patch of these 

 " Johnny-jump-ups " which appears to be 

 continually renewed by new plants, and yet, 

 as I have visited the patch every June after 

 the flowers were gone, I could find few seed- 



