50 Fertilization of Plants. [J^^J? 



as they now are to leave the plow for the office of some lawyer 

 or doctor. The truth is, there is a universal propensity in man 

 which makes him desirous to exhibit his intellectual acquirements 

 in some way. Hence it is, that the well educated young man 

 almost uniformly desires to enter into some profession, rather than 

 to engage in agriculture or the mechanic arts, although he may 

 know that the labor required in the former will be twice as great, 

 and the profits less than in the latter. Consequently, if we would 

 ever confer the benefits of science on practical agriculture, our 

 agricultural associations must not only exhibit bulls, sheep, corn, 

 &c., but they must enter on a scientific examination of their work, 

 and call for direct intellectual labor, and thereby take advantage 

 of that principle of our nature to which we have alluded. 

 Bingharnton, June 25th, 1846. 



FERTILIZATION OF PLANTS. 



BY PROF. J. DARBY. 



The effect of the pollen on the pistil of the flower is called 

 fertilization or fecundation. It is the end of a long series of 

 arrangements so related as to aim at this express result. The 

 structure of the flower seems in all its parts to be so adjusted as to 

 ensure under given circumstances the contact of the pollen tubes 

 with the embryo sac. It is in fact the great end of vegetation, 

 the reproduction of individuals. 



There is no topic in vegetable physiology of more interest to 

 the phytologist, or of more importance to the agriculturist and 

 gardener than fertilization. From the former it is receiving his 

 best efforts, and from the latter it ought to receive sufficient at- 

 tention to be understood in its relation to the influences that may 

 aid or injure its operation, and to the condition in which it takes 

 place, as in this function lie all the hopes of the agriculturist and 

 all the intei'ests of the cultivator of flowers. The gardener, it is 

 true, has for a long time been acquainted with tlie practical op- 



