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Fig. 8 represents the flower with the stamens entirely wanting. 

 Plants having the perfect flower, as in Fig. 6, will give a full 

 crop of fruit, as they are self-fertilizing, and those having no 

 stamens, as in Fig. 8, will give no fruit unless fertilized by 

 other plants. Where the flowers are imperfectly developed, a 

 partial crop may sometimes be obtained. Fig. 6 represents 

 what are variously known as staminate, perfect, bi-sexual, or 

 hermaphrodite flowers, and Fig. 8 a pistillate flower. The pistil 

 is that part of the flower which enlarges when fertilized, and 

 forms what is usually called the fruit, but by botanists the 

 stigma ; unfertilized, there will be no development and no per- 

 fect fruit. It will be seen that at the top of the stamens 

 in the perfect flower there is an enlargement which is known 

 as the anther. This is filled with and scatters over the 

 pistil an exceedingly fine dust called pollen, by means of 

 which the flower is fertilized, and perfect fruit follows. 



Now, as no fruit can be obtained from a pistillate variety, un- 

 less its flowers are fertilized by pollen from some perfect flower- 

 ing sort, it follows, of course, that the two varieties must be plant- 

 ed out near enough togethei to insure that result. Fortunately 

 pollen is exceedingly light, and is carried by the wind and in- 

 sects from flower to flower, and fertilization will be effected at 

 a distance of twenty feet or more. In planting, set the stami- 

 nate varieties, so that the prevailing winds at the fruiting 

 season will carry the pollen over the pistillate bed. 



It is obvious that if a pistillate and staminate variety are set 

 side by side, remote from any other, cross fertilization will oc- 

 cur, and the seed of the pistillate variety will produce a plant 

 and fruit unlike either parent, but having some of the character- 

 istics of both. In this way thousands of new varieties are 

 easily grown, some of which may prove t superior to either 

 parent, and better than any other known sort. The method of 

 crossing the strawberry when one is a staminate and the other a 

 pistillate requires no skill, but may be performed by any boy of 

 intelligence, simply by planting the two side by side. The seeds 

 from the pistillate plant should be sown, as the staminate plant 

 will be self-fertilized, and its seedlings may be quite like the 

 parent. 



Any one will see that two pistillate varieties cannot be crossed, 

 3 



