FRUITS, VEGETABLES, AND FLOWERS. 15 



branches, as in the case of seed parents, this selection being to 

 some extent regulated by the purposes for which propagation 

 is effected, taste, or convenience, and in harmony with locality, 

 soil, or climate. 



Among plants the most likely to repay the labours of a careful 

 hybridiser are those which bear male and female flowers sepa- 

 rately, either on the same plant, as in Cucumbers, Melons, Oaks, 

 and many Conifers, or on separate plants, as in the case of many 

 Palms, Aucuba, Garrya, and others in fact, nearly all monoecious 

 and dioecious plants seem predisposed to hybridise freely with 

 each other ; and some other plants which, strictly speaking, are 

 hermaphrodite, or have both male and female organs in the 

 same flower, as in Primula, Linum, Lythrum, some species of Pas- 

 siflora, and Forsythia, which are practically dioecious, since they 

 never or very rarely fruit unless fertilised with the pollen from 

 another species. Another large group of plants to which the 

 intelligent hybridiser should direct his attention are the Orchids, 

 Asclepiads, many Pea-flowers and Melastomads, the Lobelia 

 family, Ericas, and indeed all others which, like those just 

 named, show either by the curious structure of their blossoms 

 or the functions of the sexual organs that insect agency is 

 essential to their fertilisation. Other plants naturally favour 

 cross fertilisation by the alternate development of the sexual 

 organs in the same flower, and of these Agaves, Hellebores, and 

 nearly all the Calceolarias are excellent examples. In the case 

 of Calceolarias, the style is receptive long before the pollen is 

 shed by the anthers of the same flower; and in Agave the 

 reverse of this takes place, the stigma not being receptive or 

 capable of impregnation until after its attendant anthers are 

 withered. All plants which exhibit this irregular development 

 of the sexual organs, like monoecious and dioecious plants, or 

 such as require insect agency, rarely fail to repay the attention 

 of the hybridist, and should be preferred for all scientific ex- 

 periments, since the chances of accidental self-fertilisation are 

 here reduced to a minimum. Orchids and Asclepiads are 

 perhaps the safest of all plants with which to conduct scientific 

 hybridising experiments. In all matters of propagation, whether 

 sexual or vegetative, the idea of possible improvement should 

 always be present in the propagator's mind. It is not enough 

 to save seed and take cuttings merely to increase or reproduce 

 a plant ; but in all cases the selection of seeds, cuttings, grafts, 

 buds, and stocks should be intelligently made, with the object 

 of improving the future generation in addition to the mere fact 

 of originating it. In other words, do not let the brain be led 

 by a dexterous hand, but, above all, let the hand, however 



