MULTIPLICATION. 91 



which the pollen is carried from flower to flower of these 

 plants, and no doubt this is true to some extent and under 

 certain circumstances. Nevertheless, from the careful ex- 

 periments and observations of Mr. A. S. Wilson, recorded 

 in a paper read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh 

 and printed in the Gardeners' Chronicle, March 14, 1874, 

 it appears that self fertilisation is the rule among cereals, 

 though cross-fertilisation does occasionally take place and 

 has been effected artificially by various experimenters. The 

 flowers of wheat, barley, and oats open to a slight degree 

 and allow the anthers to protrude, often quite suddenly; 

 but whether they fully or but partially open, says Mr. 

 Wilson, they are fertilised before the anthers are visible 

 outside. "The Belgian farmers," he continues, "who 

 trailed ropes over their flowering wheat to insure complete 

 fertilisation, were doing that which the very appearance of 

 the anthers told them in whispers, not yet heard, had 

 already been accomplished." The pollen of these plants 

 which the winds disperse is not that which fertilises, but 

 that which is not required for fertilisation. The success of 

 the process depends, as before said, upon the circumstance 

 whether or not the pollen and the feathery stigma are 

 respectively ripe at the same time. If so, then fertilisa- 

 tion results ; if not, there is still a chance of cross-fertilisa- 

 tion, but if that fail, the flower remains barren. 



Hybridisation is a procedure with which the gardener 

 is much more familiar than the farmer. It is only a 

 further development of cross-fertilisation. Cross- fertilisa- 

 tion, as has been said, takes place between flowers of the 

 same individual plant, or between flowers of two different 

 individuals of the same species ; but hybridisation is 



