NEW VARIETIES. 235 



in an enlarged upper end, termed the anther. Each anther is 

 filled with saccules of yellowish, powdery grains, and this 

 is the fecundating material. It is called pollen. At maturity 

 the saccules burst and the pollen is exposed. 



The female element, the pistil is, in the flowers of which 

 we are now speaking, a stem-like organ having a bulbous 

 lower end, the ovary, occupying the receptacle in the base of 

 the bloom, and a slightly enlarged and roughened upper end, 

 termed the stigma. It is here, upon the stigma of the pistil, 

 that the pollen must be placed if fecundation is to be effected. 



Usually both stamens and pistil are found in the same 

 flower, but this is by no means always the case. When, how- 

 ever, they are thus found, the stamens usually ripen first, giving 

 ample opportunity for the pollen to become dissipated before 

 the pistils become receptive, thus preventing self-pollina- 

 tion. Here again there is no invariable rule, since some 

 plants are normally self -pollinated the cotton plant, for ex- 

 ample. 



Now instead of depending upon the bees and the wind and 

 such fortuitous means of carrying the pollen from plant to 

 plant, instead of exposing flowers to the fertilizing influence 

 of any grade of pollen whatsoever, as Nature habitually does, 

 the plant breeder carefully collects in a saucer or upon a 

 watch crystal precisely the pollen he wants and with his own 

 hand places it upon the particular stigma he wishes to affect. 

 He may even precede this act by certain surgical operations, 

 afterwards attending his patient with all the care and skill of a 

 physician. 



Plants of different kinds exhibit different degrees of wil- 

 lingness or unwillingness to act and be acted upon by pollina- 

 tion. If they are of closely related varieties they usually 



