ig8 



CUCUMBER. 



69. A seedless (not pollinated) 

 fruit. The Berkshire Cham- 

 pion cucumber. 



duces seeds only near the 

 blossom end, the ovules in 

 the remaining half or two- 

 thirds never filling out, no 

 matter how much pollen is 

 applied to the stigma. It 

 would seem, therefore, that 

 if all these ovules in the 

 blossom end were to de- 

 velop into good seeds, the 

 fruit must be larger at this 

 point. And it would also 

 seem as if accidental appli- 

 cation of pollen to one side 

 of the stigma must make the 

 fruit one-sided by developing 

 one cell at the expense of 

 another, for this actually oc- 

 curs in tomatoes and apples. 

 But we have found that seed- 

 bearing is not necessarily as- 

 sociated with a swollen end 

 to the fruit, and pollination 

 of one side does not appear 

 to destroy the symmetry of 

 the fruit. We have per- 

 formed many experiments 

 upon the influences of differ- 

 ent amounts of pollen, but 

 find that there is very little 

 difference in external results, 

 whether little or much pol- 

 len is used. This is directly 

 contrary to our experience 

 with winter tomatoes. Little 

 pollen (30 to 50 pollen 

 grains) may produce fewer 

 seeds than much pollen (200 



