192 SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



heartened by the results that he was inchned to throw down 

 the burden, "There is a fascination that binds me still." 

 In other words, he was engaged in one of the divinest forms 

 of alchemy. 



Having procured the vigorous stock from which we hope 

 to obtain still stronger and more productive varieties, we 

 may go to work several ways. "We may plant our choice 

 varieties in close proximity, and let the bees and summer 

 gales do the hybridizing. It will be remembered that the 

 organs of procreation in the perfect strawberry blossom are 

 the pistils on the convex receptacle and the encircling sta- 

 mens. The anthers of the latter produce a golden powder, 

 so light that it will float on a summer breeze, and so fine 

 that insects dust themselves with it and carry it long dis- 

 tances. When this dust, which is called pollen, comes in 

 contact with the stigma of a pistil, it imparts the power of 

 development both to the seed and that which sustains it, — 

 the receptacle which is eventually transformed into the juicy 

 pulp. If the pistils are not fertilized, there will be no straw- 

 berries, as well as no seeds. Perfect-flowering varieties, 

 therefore, are self-fertilizing. There are stamens and pistils 

 in the sam^e flower, and the pollen from the former impreg- 

 nates the latter. In view of this fact, the probabilities are 

 all against success in obtaining an improved variety. While 

 the pollen may pass from one perfect- flowering kind to 

 another, and produce a seed which will give a new combi- 

 nation, the chances of self-fertilization, and that, in conse- 

 quence, the seeds will produce degenerate and somewhat 

 varying counterparts of the parent, are so great that it is. 

 a waste of time to plant them. There is little to be hoped,, 

 therefore, from the seed of perfect-flowering kinds left to 

 nature's influences. 



In this country, we have pistillate varieties, or those that. 



