AND HIS PLANT SCHOOL n 



not only maintained but much improved; and something 

 of the principle of selection the first great principle of 

 all plant improvement was learned by the boy. 



Perhaps, however, the most important lesson learned 

 was that a plant makes stronger and better seeds when 

 it can get pollen dust from another plant of the same 

 kind than when it has to use that which grows in the 

 same flower. He saw that the plants depended upon the 

 wind and the insects to carry the pollen from flower to 

 flower. A bee reaching far into a blossom to get the 

 honey rubbed its back against the little pollen boxes. 

 When it came out it carried away the precious yellow 

 dust on its back and legs, ready to give it to the next 

 flower. 



He found that when the flower of a squash received pol- 

 len from a flower of a similar plant such as the pumpkin, 

 instead of forming another perfect squash, the fruit which 

 grew was not a finely flavored squash, but was somewhat 

 tasteless like a pumpkin. This experience taught him 

 the wisdom of planting such plants some distance apart, 

 that their pollen might not mix, and thus the quality be 

 impaired. 



One does not become a great naturalist all at once. 

 There is much to learn, and the knowledge must be ac- 

 quired very slowly and patiently by careful study. All 

 these facts about plants, and many more as wonderful, 

 were learned by the boy Luther in the home vegetable 



