INGENUITY IN VARIATION 119 



thus, which we for the first time have brought 

 into being a thing which had never lived before, 

 yet which has within it all of the tendencies in- 

 herited from ages of ancestry which wait only 

 on environment to determine in a slight degree 

 which shall predominate. 



By the simple combination of the pollen and 

 the egg we have produced a new individual which 

 may, if we have the requisite knowledge in choos- 

 ing the parents and will it, become the founder 

 of a whole race of new and better carnations. 



How shall we go about it to make a combina- 

 tion such as this between the pollen dust and 

 the seedlike egg so snugly stowed away within 

 its nest? 



Let us examine that central stalk inside the 

 guard of pollen-bearing stamens and few or 

 many petals, and we shall have the answer. 



As the stamens fall away we begin to see a 

 transformation in the central stalk. Its upper 

 end, which at first was single, now shows a tend- 

 ency to divide into two or three curling tendrils 

 moist and sticky, covered with hundreds of 

 little fingers to still further catch and hold the 

 pollen. 



Though we may plant pollen in the ground 

 without result, we have but to place it on one 

 of these stigmas as they curl from the end of 



