ROGERS' HYBRID GRAPES. 401 



which has most of the qualities that it is desirable 

 to retain in the offspring. Some have assigned the 

 determination of habit to one parent, and the bear- 

 ing properties to the other. But this is not abso- 

 lutely true, as the characters of both are blended. 

 For instance, the Rogers' hybrid grapes have, most 

 of them, the vigor of the native, or female, but the 

 short joints of the foreign, or male. They resemble 

 the mother in vigor, hardiness, form, and texture of 

 leaf, while the form of the bunch and berry, the 

 sex of the blossom, and flavor of the fruit, resemble 

 the father. Almost all natural seedlings of our 

 native grapes are male, or staminate, and therefore 

 fail, in a great degree, to set their fruit, and have 

 broken bunches in consequence. But these hybrids 

 are like the father in being pistilate or hermaphro- 

 dite. 



Gaertner asserts that the juice of the pollen 

 grains combine with that of the stigma to fecundate 

 the germen, which Herbert considers as very ques- 

 tionable, and adds, that the superabundant viscous 

 juice on the stigma of some plants obstructs fecun- 

 dation. 



The experiments of Mr. Herbert, in regard to 

 the slowness of the process of fecundation, seem to 

 agree generally with those of Kolreutcr. It required 

 at least one hour and a half for the pollen grains 

 to become emptied ; and the latter gentleman found 

 that no more grains than were sufficient to complete 



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