UNSHAPELY FRUITS. IQ7 



fore, aim to produce seedless cucumbers for the double 

 purpose of saving labor and of procuring 

 straighter and more shapely fruits. For sev- 

 eral years we have made experiments upon 

 these questions, but we are not yet able to //.' \ 

 make many definite statements concerning 

 them ; we think, however, that the large thick- 

 ened ends of fruits like Fig. 68 are caused by 

 the production of seeds in that portion. The 

 early flowers nearly always fail to set if pollen 

 is withheld, but late flowers upon the same plant 

 may set freely with no pollen. Fruits which 

 have set without pollination are uniformly seed- 

 less throughout, as shown in Fig. 69 (page 

 198), the walls of the ovules remaining loose 

 and empty. Pollination does not occur when 

 the fruits are left to themselves in the forcing- 

 house, especially in midwinter, when pollen- 

 carrying insects are not present. Upon old 

 plants we often prevent pollination, for experi- 

 mental purposes, by tying together the 

 flower tube, or occasionally by cutting 

 off the flower bud altogether from the 

 top of the ovary or young cucumber j 

 but this latter method is uncertain. 



In pollinating, we follow the same 

 method advised by Abercrombie and 

 other writers of the last century, pick 

 off a staminate flower, strip back the co- 

 rolla, and insert the column of anthers 68. A misshapen 

 into a pistillate flower. fruit. 



The production of misshapen fruits is one of the dif- 

 ficulties of cucumber forcing. The commonest deformity 

 is the large end shown in Fig. 68. English gardeners 

 often grow the fruits in glass tubes to make them 

 straight. The cause of the deformities, particularly of 

 the swollen end, is obscure. The forcing cucumber pro- 



