WORK OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT, &c. 139 
very seldom that a perfect seed is found. So rare is this that most 
people, and even some botanists, consider it to be a totally seedless fruit. 
It is interesting to note here that the stigmas are apparently always 
abundantly dusted with pollen from the same flower, and it is plain that 
they are either self-sterile or that the pollen is imperfect. A microscopic 
examination, however, of the pollen of the Red Spanish variety showed 
the polien to be perfectly normal so far as could be judged. 
In the spring of 1896 I crossed a number of flowers of the Mauritius 
Pineapple with pollen of the Red Spanish variety simply as a_ pre- 
liminary trial to see whether seeds could be induced to set by crossing 
different sorts or varieties. In this experiment a number of apparently 
perfect seeds set, some fifteen of which germinated and grew. In the 
spring of 1897 Mr. W. T. Swingle made numerous other crosses, and the 
following year, the spring of 1898, I continued the work myself. As a 
result of this work we now have some 500 seedlings showing many 
interesting foliage variations. The 24-month-old seedlings have reached 
a height of 6 or 8 inches, being as large as the slips commonly used in 
planting fields, and it would seem from their size that many will fruit in 
the summer of 1901. If size and rapidity of growth can be taken as 
an indication they surely will not require eight years from seed to 
fruit, as I have seen somewhere stated. 
In the course of the work it has been observed that certain sorts are 
apparently sterile to each other’s pollen, no seeds setting even when care- 
fully crossed. As an illustration, fifty flowers of Pernambuco crossed 
with pollen of Porto Rico gave no seeds; and thirty-nine flowers of Porto 
Rico crossed with pollen of Pernambuco, the reciprocal cross to the above, 
also gave only one single seed, and that imperfect. 
In my own experience the most fertile varieties are the Abbaka 
and Smooth Cayenne, two of the finest varieties known. Ninety-seven 
flowers of Abbaka crossed with pollen of Smooth Cayenne gave seventy- 
seven good seeds, and, in the case of the reciprocal cross, thirty-six 
flowers of the Smooth Cayenne crossed with pollen of Abbaka gave forty- 
six perfect seeds. Other sorts used in crossing, such as Golden Queen, 
Ripley, Red Spanish, Mauritius, &¢., gave varying degrees of fertility 
between these two extremes. 
Corton HyYBRIDISATION. 
The production of Cotton is one of the most extensive industries of 
the Southern United States, and furnishes many problems to tax the 
skill of the plant breeder. The so-called Sea Island Cotton, Gossypiwm 
barbadense, grown in a limited area mainly on islands near the coast of 
Georgia and South Carolina, furnishes the longest and finest staple pro- 
duced anywhere in the world. The Upland Cotton, Gossypium herbaceum, 
which is the kind grown all over the interior, produces a comparatively 
short and coarse staple. If by hybridising the fine Sea Island with the 
different varieties of the Upland a race can be secured suitable to growth 
in the interior regions, and yielding a finer and longer staple, the industry 
will be greatly benefited. This would seem to be a comparatively simple 
problem, but it is complicated by the necessity of securing, not only a 
