78 THE GBAPE CULTURIST. 



In all our efforts at hybridizing, attention should be 

 given to the adaptation of the plants to the circumstances 

 under which they are to be grown. 



If it is our object to produce a plant for this lati- 

 tude, we should avoid, if possible, crossing with a variety 

 that ripens late, or is otherwise unsuitable. The aim, 

 in all our operations, should be to develop those quali- 

 ties that are most valuable, and discourage those that 

 are not; for these inter-crossings will often produce an 

 individual variety more valuable to us than either of the 

 parents. Again, we may cross two superior varieties, 

 and the result will be a kind that is very inferior. But 

 it is this very uncertainty that makes the operation so 

 fascinating. If we could know exactly what the results 

 of our labor would be, it would be robbed of half its 

 charms. 



Mode of Operation. That we may proceed un- 

 derstandingly, let us examine the blossoms of the grape. 

 But in the accompanying illustrations the flowers are 

 shown much enlarged. Fig. 24 shows a flower 

 as it is expanding ; A shows the five petals coher- 

 ing together, as they are lifted up and cast off by 

 the stamens ; the petals do not open, as in the 

 rose, lily, and most other flowers, but drop off 

 without expanding. Fig. 25 shows the flower FIG * 24- 

 after the petals are gone ; the five stamens are now sur- 

 rounding the center of the flower ; the little knobs at 

 their summits (B) are called anthers, which 

 produce a fine dust, called pollen this is 

 the fertilizing material which we wish to 

 control. Soon after the flowers open, or the 

 falling of the petals, this pollen is carried 

 FIG. 25. by the air or insects to the stigma (c), which 

 is the terminal point of the pistil, placed in the center of 

 the flower. The surface of the stigma is covered with a 

 viscid substance, to which the pollen adheres; and so 



