LUTHER BURBANK 



through which the perpetuation of its kind is 

 effected; the mechanisms, that is to say, of the 

 typical flower. 



As we come to study flowers in detail, it 

 will appear that among those dependent upon 

 insect-fertilizers, no less than among the wind- 

 fertilized, there are individuals that bear the 

 essential organs of the flower in separate blossoms. 

 Reference was made to this in the case of our 

 hybridizing experiment with a certain species of 

 dewberry, and we shall see other illustrations of 

 it from time to time. 



But the major part of the most familiar 

 cultivated plants, including all the conspicuous 

 fruit trees of our orchards, bear flowers each of 

 which contains within the same blossom both the 

 staminate and the pistillate organs. 



Ordinarily it is the function of the bee to 

 carry pollen from one blossom to the pistil of 

 another. But on occasion even these flowers may 

 be self-fertilized. Thus it may be said that the 

 most important, from a human standpoint, among 

 the existing plants have adopted a compromise, 

 in which cross-fertilization is the rule, yet which 

 makes possible self-fertilization in case, under the 

 stress of circumstances, cross-fertilization should 

 fail to take place. 



Doubtless on the whole this was the best course 



[84] 



