UNSHAPELY FRUITS. 197 
fore, aim to produce seedless cucumbers for the double 
purpose of saving labor and of procuring 
straighter and more shapely fruits. For sev- 
eral years we have made experiments upon 
these questions, but we are not yet able to 
make many definite statements concerning 
them ; we think, however, that the large thick- 
ened ends of fruits like Fig. 68 are caused by 
the production of seeds in that portion. The 
early flowers nearly always fail to set if pollen 
is withheld, but late flowers upon the same plant 
may set freely with no pollen. Fruits which 
have set without pollination are uniformly seed- 
less throughout, as shown in Fig. 69 (page 
198), the walls of the ovules remaining loose 
and empty. Pollination does not occur when 
the fruits are left to themselves in the forcing- 
house, especially in midwinter, when _pollen- 
carrying insects are not present. Upon old 
plants we often prevent pollination, for experi- 
mental purposes, by tying together the 
flower tube, or occasionally by cutting 
off the flower bud altogether from the 
top of the ovary or young cucumber 
but this latter method is uncertain. 
In pollinating, we follow the same 
method advised by Abercrombie and 
other writers of the last century, — pick 
off a staminate flower, strip back the co- 
rolla, and insert the column of anthers 68 4 misshapen 
into a pistillate flower. yreae 
The production of misshapen fruits is one of the dif- 
ficulties of cucumber forcing. The commonest deformity 
is the large end shown in Fig. 68. English gardeners 
often grow the fruits in glass tubes to make them 
straight. The cause of the deformities, particularly of 
the swollen end, is obscure. The forcing cucumber pro- 
SSS 
