THE ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE OF NATURAL 

 CROSS-FERTILIZATION IN INDIA 



BY -'BRAkV 



ALBERT HOWARD, m.a., a.r.c.s,, f.l.8, ^^Tan ^'^'^ 



Imperial Economic Botanist, „ 



QAKOEN. 



GABRIELLE L. C. HOWARD, m.a.. 

 Associate and Former Felloiv of Nervnham College, Cambridge, 



AND 



ABDUR RAHMAN KHAN, 

 Assistant to the Imperial Economic Botanist. 



I. INTRODUCTION. 



The methods of pollination and the possible occurrence of 

 natural cross-fertilization in crops raised from seed are matters 

 of the first importance both in the improvement, introduction and 

 testing of varieties and also in the growth and distribution of 

 seed to cultivators in India. In the present paper it is proposed 

 to place on record some of the more important observations on 

 these questions which have been made during the past four years 

 in the Botanical area at Pusa, and also to discuss the bearing 

 of the facts observed on the methods of improving the crops of 

 India. 



The Indian crops, which are raised from seed, fall, for the 

 purposes of this paper, into three great divisions : — 



A. Crops with closed flowers, such as the cereals and pulses. 

 In this group self-pollination is likely to be the rule. 



B. Crops with hermaphrodite open flowers, such as tobacco, 

 pativa {Hibiscus cannabinus, L.), hnseed, the Brassica oil seeds, 



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