20 Southern Gardener^ s Practical Mamial 



Bmcious plants. — A third class of plauts bear male 

 flowers and female flowers, or those containing stamens 

 and pistils on .separate plants. Asparagus and spinach 

 are illustrations of this class. 



CROSSES AND HYBRIDS 



Extreme caution is necessary to prevent varieties of 

 monoecious plants from crossing and their species from 

 hybridizing. This is especially true of the melons, cucum- 

 bers, squashes, and gourds and corn. It is impossible to 

 prevent crossing if varieties are grown near each other, 

 while cucumbers and cantaloupes hybridize, as do 

 squashes and gourds. Such crosses and hybrids not only 

 affect the crops grown from the seed, which have been 

 cross-fertilized, but the flavor of the fruit of the current 

 year is affected. If gourds are 'grown near squashes, 

 cucumbers near cantaloupes, or even watermelons near 

 pumpkins, occasionally the effect upon the flavor is 

 appreciable. 



Some very marked cases of the cucumber hybridized 

 with the cantaloupe have occurred in the experience of 

 the writer. The seed of the hybrid produced in each 

 case. 



While accidental crossing of varieties is very trouble- 

 some to the gardener and fruit-grower, new varieties 

 are thus produced, which greatly enrich our catalogues. 

 Although closely related species hybridize readily, it is 

 almost impossible to establish a type which is sufficiently 

 fixed to reproduce itself accurately. 



The desirable qualities of two varieties may be 



