350 LUTHER BURBANK 



CROSS-POLLENIZING THE DAHLIA 



Among themselves the dahlias cross very 

 readily, it being, indeed, difficult to keep them 

 from crossing when they are grown near 

 together. 



Yet, as in the case of all composite flowers, the 

 hand-pollenizing of the dahlias presents certain 

 difficulties. The method of hand-pollenizing, 

 with special reference to the washing off of the 

 pollen from the pistillate flower before applying 

 the foreign pollen, has been detailed in its appli- 

 cation to composite flowers in general in the 

 chapter on pollenization. It may be added that 

 it is sometimes possible to blow the pollen away, 

 if water for washing it off is not available. The 

 use of a strong magnifier to inspect the recep- 

 tacle and make sure that all pollen has been 

 removed will give added certainty to your 

 experiment. 



After the pollen has been thoroughly removed 

 by washing, apply the head of the flower that is 

 to be used as the pollen parent, rubbing it gently 

 against the pistillate head while it is still wet. 



But to complete the experiment, it is desirable 

 to mark the flower, and to repeat the maneuver 

 on several successive days. This is necessary be- 

 cause not all the flowers in the head mature at 



