370 NEW JERSEY STATE AGRICULTURAL 



SMALL CAPSULES WITH HYBRID SEEDS. 



A few plants were grown of three species of Daturas, namely. 

 Datura Stramonimn^ D. Tatula and D. Meteloides for purpose of 

 hybridization. 



Shortly after the floral parts fell away, it was noted that the 

 capsules that were resulting from the pollination of the D. Mete- 

 loides upon either D. Tatula or D. Stramonium were much less 

 rapid in growth than those that were pollinated in the open. 

 This difference continued to increase until the time of harvest 

 when the capsules from flowers treated with D. Meteloides pollen 

 were only a quarter or less the size of the others upon the plants. 

 In Plate XXIV., seven branches are shown, five upon the left of 

 D. Stramonium and the two to the right of D. Tatula. The 

 capsule with the label, in each case, is from the hand-worked 

 flower and those nearer the tips of the respective branches were 

 formed later. The comparison should be made with the largest 

 of these younger capsules and this will show .that there is quite a 

 uniform difference as above mentioned. 



The seeds were very few in these small capsules ; thus, of the 

 D. Stramonium, one had no seeds; the next, five; the third, three; 

 fourth, five; and the last, two; or a total of fifteen seeds— that 

 is, an average of three seeds per capsule. The results were even 

 smaller for the D. Tatula capsules, as one had only several half- 

 grown seeds and the other one plump seed and a few imperfect 

 ones. The seeds in normal capsules of the two species average 

 near six hundred. 



The Daturas are readily close-fertilized, as shown elsewhere 

 under exclusion experiments, and, in making a cross, the flower 

 needs to be worked some days before the long corolla unfolds. 



EXCLUSION EXPERIMENT. 



As the work of breeding has been pursued, the desire for 

 further information concerning the self-fertility of flowers of 

 various truck crops has grown, and during the present season 



