16 THE STRAWBERRY CULTURISX. 



I3TFLITENCB OF POLLEN. 



If the small central organs or pistils of a Strawberry 

 flower are not fertilized by pollen from its own stamens 

 or that from some other plant, they soon die away and 

 no fleshy receptacle or fruit is produced. This pollen 

 is an impalpable dust-like powder and yet so important 

 that the production of the Strawberry is dependent upon 

 its presence and potency. There must be not only an 

 abundance of pollen, but it must be supplied by some 

 closely allied species or variety of the Strawberry, to be 

 available. Pollen from the wild or uncultivated Alpines 

 or the Hautbois Strawberries will not fertilize the pistils 

 of the varieties of either the Virginia or Chili Straw- 

 berry, neither will the pollen of the latter two species fer- 

 tilize the pistils of the former. But the Virginia and 

 Chili Strawberries are so closely allied that they readily 

 hybridize ; consequently, varieties of either may be em- 

 ployed as the male or pollen-bearing for pistillate varie- 

 ties, provided, of course, that they bloom at the same 

 time, that is, the plants that are to yield the pollen and 

 those to receive it must bloom together. 



There is a great difference in the potency of the pol- 

 len of the different varieties of plants of the same spe- 

 cies, and it is not at all rare to find bisexual plants the 

 pollen of which will not fertilize their own ovaries, while 

 it is perfectly potent when applied to the stigmas of 

 another plant of the same species. Thus one variety of 

 the Strawberry may, in appearance, have perfect flowers, 

 and in the greatest abundance, and both stamens and 

 pistils be fully developed, and still ninety per cent, or 

 even more of the flowers wiH fail to produce fruit. In 

 such instances of non-productiveness we may be quite 

 tertaiu that there is something wrong in the sexual or- 



