HYBRIDIZING. 39 



such splendid varieties. Again, see to what perfection the 

 Cineraria has been brought, also the Verbena Gladiolus 

 and Geranium, and many other beautiful flowering plants. 

 These improvements have created much excitement in the 

 minds of the florist, which makes it difficult to tell when 

 the limit of his desire for hybridizing will be checked. 



There are many hybrid plants brought into existence 

 that will not seed, consequently must be increased by cut- 

 tings or divisions of the roots, and many that do seed car- 

 ry a tendency towards the parent plant that in time will 

 return altogether and be lost as a hybrid. The settled con- 

 stitution of such plants is not to be relied on. for it posses- 

 ses a weakness, and as its flowers tend to the original pa- 

 rent its strength increases, so that hybrids that cross naturally 

 are of shdrt duration. This may appear strange, but so it 

 is. If we take the pollen of one flower and fertilize another 

 of a different quality, the produce arising from such an ex- 

 periment would probably bear no resemblance to any raised 

 before, this would be devoid of seed to perpetuate its kind 

 the following season. 



It is the practice of a florist when he intends to cross a 

 flower, to cut the anthers out of the blossom early in the 

 morning when the pollen is moist and does not so readily 

 escape, which insures more effectually the performance. 

 Therefore it is necessary for those who wish to succeed in 

 hybridizing, to commence early in the morning. When 

 a plant does not seed well there would be much time lost 

 in the attempt, for instance the Carnation, Chrysanthemum, 

 and many other perennials that seldom seed in this country. 



When experiments by crossing are to be performed, the 

 pollen should be taken from the plant early in the morning 



