POLLINATION TO FRUTT PRESERVATION. 95 



to renewed growth. The carpel increases in size ; its cells become 

 stored with sugar, etc., and it forms the fleshy edible part of the 

 fruit by the time that the hard seed has matured. These sweet 

 walls induce animals to eat the fruits and assist in the dispersal 

 of the seeds, thus helping the palms to multiply in the wild state. 

 When, the seeds are sown in suitable conditions, the hard endo- 

 sperm which forms the bulk of the seed gradually softens and 

 becomes a supply of soluble food which nourishes the baby 

 plant until it can develop a sufficient root and leaf system 

 to collect food materials from the soil and air, and manufacture 

 food for itself. 



62. If after pollination the parts of the male plant which 



characters of the P ass to tne female (i.e., the gametes and accom- 



^eVtcTthT seeds P an yi n protoplasmic matter) fuse only with 



b ar\ n of t0 the e fJSs bodies which give rise to parts of the seed as 



formed as the imme- ^gy <jo in other plants, the characters of the 



diate result of pom- * 



nation. ma le plant used in pollination are not embodied 



in the edible part of the fruit which encloses the seed ; that 

 part being simply the ripened carpel of the female. I have not 

 yet found any reliable evidence against this view, although it 

 is not uncommon to find date-growers who believe that the 

 characters of the male are conveyed to the edible part of the 

 fruit formed. When seeds of these fruits are sown, the plants 

 produced show characters of the male used, as one would 

 expect. 



63. As the number of flower-clusters on both male and 

 female trees are about equal, and there are one 



Number of males . \ n 



required per ioo hundred or more branches in a male inflorescence, 

 one male tree will suffice to fertilise 100 female 

 trees approximately where one male branch is used to a female 

 flower-cluster, and will suffice for 50 trees approximately where 

 two male branches are used. It is evident, therefore, that if the 

 male trees produce a fair number of flower -clusters, two male date 

 trees ought to suffice to pollinate 100 female trees. It is safer, 

 however, to have three male trees to every 100 females (see also 

 page 97, para. 66). 



