FLOWERS. 55 



the stigma. It must also be guarded from accidental im- 

 pregnation by other varieties, and the pollen from the 

 selected male be applied at the proper moment that is, 

 when it bursts from the anther. Hybridization is only 

 possible between species closely related ; for, although there 

 is a relation between the apple and the pear, and between 

 the gooseberry and the currant, they will not hybridize ; 

 but different varieties of the apple will hybridize with 

 each other, and so with all the rest. 



It has been regarded as impracticable to hybridize the 

 native with the foreign grape, but several parties claim to 

 have at length succeeded. The varieties thus produced 

 will be found in the descriptive list of grapes. 



Several parties have, from time to time, claimed to have 

 succeeded in crossing the Monthly Alpine Strawberry with 

 some of the large fruited sorts, but no instance of this 

 kind has yet come to our knowledge, properly authen- 

 ticated. It very often happens that the process of arti- 

 ficial impregnation fails, and a pure seedling of one of the 

 parents, instead of a hybrid, is the result. 



The prospects now are that hybridization, better under- 

 stood than formerly, will yield important results in the 

 amelioration of fruits. 



[Since writing the foregoing, I understand that Colonel 

 Wilder has really succeeded in producing hybrids between 

 the Alpine and Hautboy species and the large strawber- 

 ries, a march of great importance.] 



Blossoming in Alternate Years. Many varieties of 

 apples, pears, etc., fruits that take the whole season to 

 mature, produce flowers in alternate years only, with great 

 regularity. The reason is supposed to be this : The fruit, 

 during the bearing year, attracts a large quantity of the 

 ascending sap of the tree in the same way as the leaves 

 do; but instead of returning it to the tree, it is appropri- 

 ated by the fruit to its own growth. The consequence is, 

 the buds that would have blossomed the following year, if 



