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THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



is no natural protection for it from the contact of flower-dust 

 of stamens of different varieties. This is where human skill 

 and toil commence. The organic capability of reproducing 

 itself was an advantage which the Creator did not overlook 

 in the construction of the variety. But the continuance of a 

 genus or a species, which must depend upon fecundated seeds, 

 was much more essential, as the greater includes the less, than 

 the preservation of any one variety, however good. Hence, that 

 no chance for the loss of the species might occur, the breezes 

 of heaven were appointed as fertilizing agents to bear the 

 light pollen from one tree to another. And winged insects. 

 without number, were also divinely commissioned to aid in 

 keeping up the races of plants. So that, while the possibili- 

 ty of self-propagation by seed is inviolate, it is left to human 

 skill and care to see that the contacts, which are provided by 

 wind and insect, may not prove more than a match for the 

 more natural, or ordinary, provision for reproduction. 



It is not designed here to advance anything which common 

 sense will not approve, and a slight study of vegetable physi- 

 ology will not confirm. And so, for the present at least, we 

 shall not introduce any illustrations of the statements, either 

 from our own experiments, or from the observations of others. 



It may be desirable, in this connection, to state some causes 

 which may immediately tend to hybridize a variety, the seeds 

 of which we are seeking to retain free from all admixture. 

 1. An accidental weakness in the character of its own sta- 

 mens, which, like Hovey's Seedling, may not be furnished 

 with full anthers. This constitutional difficulty, if carefully 

 noted, may oftentimes be counteracted by seeking out on the 

 tree or plant a single perfect blossom, which may be employed 

 to fertilize others. 2. A great abundance of pollen in the 

 blossoms of a neighboring tree or plant, by means of which 

 the germs are fertilized in advance of the shedding of the 

 pollen from its own anthers. 3. The prevalence of high 

 winds from a particular direction, which may blow away its 

 own, and bring instead pollen from other trees or plants. 4. 

 the construction of the blossoms, as in the squash, so that 

 the fertilizing agent must be mechanical, as by the transfer 



