256 LUTHER BURBANK 



because, generally speaking, it is these alone that 

 put forth blossoms that please the eye. 



Whoever is interested to undertake experi- 

 ments in plant breeding must, then, familiarize 

 himself with the mechanisms by which the plant 

 makes known its appeal to the insect and those 

 through which the perpetuation of its kind is 

 effected; the mechanisms, that is to say, of the 

 typical flower. 



As we come to study flowers in detail, it 

 will appear that among those dependent upon 

 insect fertilizers, no less than among the wind- 

 fertilized, there are individuals that bear the 

 essential organs of the flower in separate blos- 

 soms. Reference was made to this in the case 

 of our crossing experiment with a certain species 

 of dewberry, and we shall see other illustrations 

 of it from time to time. 



But the major part of the most familiar culti- 

 vated plants, including all the conspicuous fruit 

 trees of our orchards, bear flowers each of which 

 contains within the same blossoms both the stam- 

 inate and the pistillate organs. 



Ordinarily it is the function of the bee to 

 carry pollen from one blossom to the pistil of 

 another. But on occasion even these flowers may 

 be self -fertilized. Thus it may be said that the 

 most important, from a human standpoint, 



