HOW PLANTS ARE PROPAGATED 95 



It sometimes happens that plants produce pollen 

 which is not good. Then we must plant among them 

 some plants with good pollen even if these plants be of 

 a different variety. This happens with certain pears, 

 plums, and grapes. 



The pollen causes not only the seed, but the flesh 

 around the seed, to grow. An apple which gets pollen 

 only on one side sets seed and grows fleshy only on that 

 side, and so makes a one-sided fruit. 



In some figs the fruit grows and ripens without the 

 action of pollen (Mission figs). In others (Smyrna 

 figs) the pollen must be carried into the flowers by a 

 tiny wasp (blastophaga) before the fruit will grow and 

 ripen. The pollen is borne on a tree by itself (as in the 

 hop), and this is called the "wild fig" or "capri fig." 

 The figs of this tree are taken off and hung in the 

 branches of the seed-bearing tree. Then the little 

 wasp covered with pollen creeps out of the " wild 

 figs " (which have only pollen), and into the seed- 

 bearing figs, and these grow and make good fruit. 

 Smyrna figs might have been grown many years 

 sooner in California had this fact been known. 



How pollen is protected. Pollen is easily spoiled 

 by dew or rain, and nearly every flower has some way 

 of keeping its pollen dry. Some flowers droop or close 

 up at nightfall or when it is about to rain, and so fore- 

 tell the weather (poor man's weatherglass, water lily, 

 dandelion). Others always droop, or spread something 



