30 AMERICAN CARNATION CULTURE. 



Crossing in nature is not uncommon. Hybridization is ex- 

 tremely rare As a rule, in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, 

 hybrids are not fertile with themselves, but will easily breed back 

 into the original types. Nature reluctently consents to perpetuate 

 a mongrel race, but is circumvented by art, and the desired hybrid 

 is continued by layers, grafts or cuttings. 



While crossing is common, hybridization is a difficult exper- 

 iment. Gaestner, high authority on hybridizing, says: "Out of 

 one thousand carefully conducted experiments, fecundation was 

 accomplished in only 259 cases." Hybridizing or crossing is 

 simply transferring the pollen of one flower to the stigma of an- 

 other, with cautionary measures taken to secure success. A cool, 

 damp atmosphere is inimicable to fertilization. The operator 

 must prevent the seed bearing mother from being fertilized with 

 its own pollen, and with tactful fingers, and delicate scissors, 

 carefully open the envelopes of the flower, as it is about to bloom, 

 cut away its stamens and apply the pollen, gathered from the 

 anthers of the male parent, on a camel hair brush, softly apply it 

 to the stigma of the mother flower, which then should be enclosed 

 in a gauze sack to prevent access of insects bearing other pollen. 



Pollen retains its vitality for a long time after it is removed 

 from the flower; it is asserted, for weeks and months in some 

 species of plants. This is the artificial process for securing vari- 

 eties, and nature carries out the same method, with the aid of air 

 and bees for brushes, and chance for parents. The chances of ob- 

 taining a better variety than is in cultivation is less than one in a 

 thousand. A cross fertilizer may think himself fortunate if he 

 originates one carnation that will hold the boards for a period of 

 ten years against coming rivals. 



Mr. Dorner crosses in January and February, sowing the 

 fertilized seed about the first of April in flats, transferring them 

 when rooted to pots, thence to the open ground where some will 

 bloom by August. His first selection is about one hundred of the 

 most promising, out of, say, two thousand plants. These are 

 transferred to the benches. This list is revised as frequently as 



