78 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



effects of the kohl-rabi were particularly plain in the enlarged stem 

 of many of the seedlings. Altogether 233 plants were raised, of 

 which 155 were mongrelized in the plainest manner, and of the re- 

 maining seventy-eight not half were absolutely pure. He repeated 

 the experiment by planting near together two varieties of cabbage 

 with purple-green and white-green lacinated leaves ; and of the 325 

 seedlings raised from the purple-green variety, 165 had white-green 

 and 160 purple-green leaves. Of the 466 seedlings raised from the 

 white-green variet}', 220 had purjjle green leaves and 246 white- 

 green leaves. These cases show how largelj^ pollen from a neigh- 

 boring variety of the cabbage effaces the action of the plant's own 

 pollen. Such facts reported by so skilful an experimenter and 

 observer as Mr. Darwin, remarked Mr, Wetherell, should be kept 

 constantly in mind by all growers of seed, whether for vegetable or 

 floral culture. 



Prof. Robinson said that in many cases the stigma ripens before 

 the pollen is perfected, or vice versa. 



E. H. Hitchings mentioned the Sabbatia cJiloroides as an instance 

 of the flowers referred to by Prof. Robinson — the pollen ripens 

 before the stigma is mature. 



The Chairman remarked that whatever might be thought of the 

 peculiar views expressed by Darwin, he was an earnest seeker 

 for facts. 



CM. Atkinson was sorry to hear any one speak of romance in 

 connection with Mr. Darwin. He thought that, with the same 

 facts before him in regard to the subject under discussion. Prof. 

 Agassiz would have come to the same conclusion as Darwin. Mr. 

 Atkinson mentioned the pelargonium as a plant incapable of self- 

 fertilization, as was shown by Foster and Beck, two of the most 

 extensive experimenters in raising new varieties of that plant. 

 The stamens are ripe before the pistil, and if you wait for seed to 

 be self-fertilized you will never get it. The appearance of purple 

 grains in the ears of white or yellow corn, shows that cross-fertili- 

 zation has had its effect in that instance. When strawberries are 

 grown under glass, unless they are fertilized with a camel's hair 

 pencil, or a hive of bees is placed in the house, the fruit will be 

 knurly and undeveloped. To produce a perfect strawberry, every 

 pistil in the flower must be fertilized. He had grown, at the late 

 John P. Cushing's, strawberries under glass to measure five and a 

 quarter inches in circumference, when there was a hive of bees in 



