STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 67 
fertilizing themselves. According to Gray & Lindley a perfect flower con- 
Sists essentially of two sets of organs, the one called the pistils and the 
other the stamens. ‘‘ The pistils are situated in the center of the flower and 
the stamens around them. The summit of the pistil is called the stigma, 
and on the top of each stamen is situated an anther, a small sack which 
contains the pollen or fine dust-like substance that fertilizes the ovules or 
young seeds of the plant.” These organs are supposed to perform offices 
similar to those of the animal kingdom: the stamens representing the male, 
and the pistils the female. When the anthers which contain the pollen 
arrive at a certain stage of maturity they open and emit a multitude of the 
minute grains of pollen, and these falling on the stigma throw out small 
hair-like tubes which penetrate through the tissue of the pistils and ulti- 
mately reach the ovules, thus fertilizing them; thus making them, when 
mature, capable of producing plants of their own kind. ‘ The ovules are 
the rudimentary seeds situated in a case at the base of the pistils, each 
containing a central portion called the nucleus which is surrounded by two 
coats, the inner called secundine and the outer peremine. The outer one, 
when mature, being a more or less hard shell-like substance serving to pro- 
tect the germ within.” When the pollen grain passes through the orifice in 
these coatings of the ovule and reaches the nucleus, it is supposed to emit a 
plantlet germ contained within it, and impregnation takes place. After 
long fertilizing, the ovules grow vigorously, and at length become fully 
developed into perfect seeds. The process or manipulations of hybridizing 
and cross-breeding plants is the same, and consists in the applying of the 
pollen from the anthers of a stamenate to the stigma and pistils of another 
flower, at such a time and in such a manner as to effect fertilization. 
Artificial Process. 
The operation is very simple. The stamens of the fiowers to be fertilized 
are entirely removed or cut away below the anthers when the tree is com- 
mencing to bloom, or before the pollen is ripe enough to fall off, and should 
be immediately covered with a glass jar or small tissue paper sack. As soon 
as the flower arrives to perfection, or is in its greatest vigor and beauty, the 
stigma is covered with a coating or mucus, and now is the time for the opera- 
tion, which is done by taking the staminate flower from its parent stalk when 
it is just ripe enough to scatter the pollen easily, and holding it over and near 
the female flower and striking it with a finger of the other hand, when the 
pollen will fall upon the stigma and pass down through the pistil into the 
ovule, or it may be applied with a fine camel hair brush,—first touching it 
to the pollen, and then passing it carefully over the stigma It is well to 
repeat the operation a few hours later, to insure perfect fertilization. The 
covering should only be removed while the operation is being performed, 
and immediately returned to remain a day or two, to prevent accident or 
insects from defeating the experiment. 
A difficulty sometimes presents itself in that the different plants do not 
bloom at the same time. If it is the flower to be used as the male that 
matures first. the stamens may be taken off and wrapped in a thin piece of 
sheet-lead, and kept in a dry place for several days; but if the female 
matures first, the blossoms must be retarded in some manner, or pollen be 
procured from some warmer climate. It is generally conceded by those who 
