RESULTS OF HYBRIDIZING CITROUS FRUITS 511 



results have not received popular notice, are working more 

 directly for useful hybrids, and a few of these may be very 

 briefly summed up. 



487. Results of hybridizing citrous fruits. In the plant- 

 breeding laboratory of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture in 1896 and 1897 hybrids were made of the ordinary 

 sweet orange and the uneatable three-leaved orange (Citrus trifo- 

 liata). Three promising varieties of a new kind of fruit known 

 as citranges have thus been obtained. Two of these are likely 

 to serve as substitutes for 



lemons, and the third may, 

 to some extent, take the 

 place of grape fruit. Their 

 main value lies in the fact 

 that they can be cultivated 

 from two hundred to four 

 hundred miles farther north 

 than ordinary citrous fruits. 

 Another interesting hy- 

 brid is that between the tan- 

 gerine and the grape fruit, 

 called the tangelo, which 

 shows a blending of the 

 characteristics of the par- 

 ent species. 



488. Results of hybridiz- 

 ing cotton. The cotton produced in the United States is roughly 

 classed as long staple and short staple. The fibers of the former 

 kind are about one and one-half times as long as those of the 

 latter. For many kinds of goods long staple cotton is indispen- 

 sable, and its price is from one and one-half times to nearly 

 twice as great as the price of short staple cotton. The short 

 staple sorts can be grown over a much larger territory than the 

 others, so that our annual production of long staple cotton is 

 only about one and one-half per cent of our total cotton crop. 



A " B 



FIG. 381. The flower of the wheat plant 



A, entire flower as seen at five in the morn- 

 ing, with the stamens protruding, the pistil 

 remaining inside ; B, the anther enlarged, 

 showing escaping pollen ; C, the pistil en- 

 larged, showing the feathery stigmas. 

 After University of Minnesota Agricultural 

 Experiment Station 



