LECTURE BY HON". MARSHALL P. WILDER. 187 



often infinitesimal, floating, as it were, like animalculas in the 

 air, it is difflcult to prevent self-impregnation of many plants, 

 unless the anthers are removed before they burst, and the pistil 

 is covered with muslin until ready to be operated on. An iustance 

 of the influence of pollen floating in the air may not be out of 

 place. When some forty years ago Mr. Longworth, of Cincinnati, 

 Ohio, promulgated the necessity of impregnating the pistillate 

 varieties of the strawberry to insure a crop, he related an anecdote 

 of the way in which he procured his knowledge of the fact. " My 

 Hudson strawberry," said he, " flowered abundantly, but yielded 

 no fruit, while the beds of Mrs. Ai-begust, my neighbor, annually 

 produced large crops. I did not then understand the sexual char- 

 acteristics of plants ; but one day, being in the garden of the 

 lady alluded to, I inquired of the gardener how it was that her 

 Hudson strawberry produced so well while mine bore no fruit. 

 The gardener pointed out one bed which bore pistillate flowers 

 and was full of fruit, and then another with staminate flowers, 

 which had no fruit, and I then discovered, for the first time, that 

 the pistillate plants could not bear fruit without the aid of the 

 staminate." 



Another instance is related by the same gentleman. He visited 

 a friend who showed him a most prolific bed of strawberries, but 

 it was evident that the flowers were pistillate, and that they must 

 have been fertilized with a staminate variety or they could not 

 have produced fruit. His friend said he had no other strawberry 

 plant in his garden. "But," said Mr. Longworth, "if, when 

 these vines are in flower another year, I cannot show you that you 

 have other and staminate varieties with which they have been 

 impregnated, I will give you a barrel of wine." The next year, 

 when the strawberries were in full bloom, Mr. Longworth found 

 them all pistillate, and not a fertile plant among them ; but on 

 further examination of the grounds, he at last espied, under a 

 currant bush, a plant of a staminate variety, and from this single 

 plant that whole bed had been fertilized. 



As before intimated, I have, during the last thirty years, crossed 

 the Japan lily with various other species of the lily tribe, and have 

 produced some fine varieties, as have my friends Mr. Parkman and 

 Mr. Hovey, from whom we hope to hear in the course of our lec- 

 tures, in regard to their interesting and successful experiments in . 

 hybridizing this and other plants. Among the most remarkable 



