SELECTING AND IMPROVING PLANTS IN CULTURE. 373 



a flower of one plant with the pollen from the flower of another of the 

 same species, but of a different variety. Sometimes fecundation may 

 be effected with the pollen of a different species, and in that case the 

 produce is said to be a hybrid, while in the other the result is merely 

 a cross or a cross-bred variety. The following is the best mode of pro- 

 ceeding : Choose the varieties possessing between them the qualities 

 from which to develop them just as the blossoms of the seed-bearing 

 plant are on the point of opening, or just after they have opened ; when 

 one is just on the point of opening and exposing the anthers, take a pair 

 of scissors and cut off the stamens, and remove the anthers, and then 

 leave the blossoms thus operated upon for a day or two, or until the 

 petals are quite expanded, and the pistil arrived at a state of maturity ; 

 when it is in this state, select a blossom of the plant with which it is 

 desired to impregnate the prepared female blossom, and when this is in 

 a state of maturity, and in a state to part with its pollen or farina 

 freely, take a small camel's-hair pencil, collect the farina on the point, 

 and place it on the stigma or crown of the pistil of the prepared 

 blossom. " New varieties of every species of fruit," Mr. Knight 

 observes, " will generally be better obtained by introducing the farina 

 of one variety of fruit into the blossom of another, than by propagating 

 from any single kind. When an experiment of this kind is made 

 between varieties of different size and character, the farina of the 

 smaller kind should be introduced into the blossoms of the larger, for, 

 under these circumstances, I have generally (but with some exceptions) 

 observed in the new fruit a prevalence of the character of the female 

 parent ; probably owing to the following causes. The seed-coats are 

 generally generated wholly by the female parent, and these regulate the 

 bulk of the lobes and plantule : and I have observed, in raising new 

 varieties of the peach, that when one stone contained two seeds, the plants 

 raised were much inferior to others. The largest seed, obtained from the 

 strongest plants, and that which ripens most perfectly and most early, 

 should always be selected. It has generally been found too, that the seed- 

 bearing plant imparts strength and constitution, while the male parent 

 gives colour and quality. 



Precautions against promiscuous fecundation require to be taken 

 both in the case of flowers the seeds of which are to be sown for the 

 purpose of selection, and in those which have been cross-fecundated. 

 In the former case, the plants should as much as possible be isolated 

 from all others of the same or of allied kinds ; and in the latter some- 

 thing more should be done. The reasons are, that in both cases the 

 farina of adjoining flowers of the same kind is in all probability floating 

 in the atmosphere, and will adhere to whatever stigmas of its own 

 species it may light on; and secondly, that bees and other insects 

 which frequent flowers carry off the pollen from one to another, and 

 thus produce accidental cross-fecundation, which would render 

 nugatory that which was attempted by art. The only mode to guard 

 against pollen floating in the atmosphere is by placing the plants far 

 from all others of the same kind, though what distance is required is 

 uncertain. For the crueifera? generally most space is required ; varieties 



