76' 



AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



the hop, &c., Figs. 60 c, d, 61, 3, 4 ; asparagus, spinach, the 

 papaw also, and persimmon, often the sassafras, and some vari- 

 eties of our wild grape-vines, are of this character. These are 

 known as " dioecious," or of two houses, the whole plant bear- 

 ing the fertilizers being fruitless. 



In mere seed or grain-bearing plants, the fertilization of the 

 fruit-bearing flower or its equivalent organs for some plants 

 do not produce flowers, properly so called is absolutely neces- 

 sary to obtaining product. Thus, where single spears or hills 

 of corn stand far apart from others, the ears never fill, because, 

 whichever way the wind may draw, the fertilizing powder, 

 as it falls from the topgallant, is carried away, and but little 

 of it settles upon and fertilizes the silk, each thread of which 

 connects with an incipient grain, and hence the failure. 



In the various fruit-bearing plants, the fertilization of the 

 fruit-bearing flower is equally essential to the production of 

 perfect seed, and generally it may be regarded as important to 

 the formation of fruit, inasmuch as the latter, being a mere ap- 

 pendage or covering for the former, may be supposed likely to 

 fail with it ; and such, in general, is the fact. The first drop- 

 ping of young fruit, which, even after an abundant show of 

 blossoms, sometimes extends to the whole orchard crop, is, I 

 believe, mainly due to the imperfection or total failure of the 

 fertilization, whether this arises from drought and glaring sun- 

 shine, from unseasonable cold, an inopportune storm, or from 

 other less manifest causes ; all such dropped fruit is seedless 

 or germless. But at least a partial crop of fruit may be ob- 

 tained where this fertilization has not been effected, as we 

 sometimes find apples without seeds in the core ; and in the 

 larger vegetable fruits, as melons, &c., which are mainly re- 

 sults of cultivation, it is easily conceivable that, without fer- 

 tilization of the flower, fruit may be produced, yielding, how- 

 ever, only shriveled and abortive seeds, or such as, if appa- 

 rently full formed, yet actually lack the essential germ, and 

 are, of course, without vitality. The " fig-apple," as it is called 

 by Duhamel, which has only pistils, being destitute of stamens, 

 as well as without petals, bears fair and tolerable fruit, but never 

 yields seeds. In these exceptional cases of fruitful nonfertil- 



