CHAPTER VI. 



Cross-Pollenizing the Flowers e 



IF it had not been for the wise provision of an All 

 Wise Creator, the almost countless varieties of 

 plants and trees would not have existed but would 

 have remained each one producing after its kind as 

 they were created. The only apple we would have 

 would be the wild one or crab of ancient Briton, 

 Europe or Asia; in size more like a berry than an 

 apple of the present day. In plums we should be 

 confined to the wild Sloe of Europe, unfit for the 

 food of man or beast, etc. 



It is said ' 'Nature abhors self-fertilization. ' ' It 

 is a theory and probably correct, that if we could 

 suppose the existence of a tree having had no cross- 

 fertilization in its ancestry, could be so isolated 

 that it could never come in contact with any pollen 

 but its own, if it produced fruit at all its seeds 

 would if it had seeds reproduce perpetually ex- 

 actly after the parent. If there were no provision 

 for fertilizing in any other way, there could be no 

 change, and consequently no improvement in vari- 

 eties. This crossing is, like budding or grafting, 

 confined within certain limits, generally to the same 

 species. As these are generally in blossom nearly 



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