OP DWARF FRUIT TREE CULTURE). && 



them if they can get at them). They are then placed where the frost 

 WILL GET AT THEM in the winter and may freeze them solid. In 

 the spring they are taken up and planted in a border where they 

 will sprout right away. 



I would strongly urge flower-loving ladies to practice the art. 

 They will soon become expert, and the enjoyment will be unexcelled. 

 They can practice upon their house flowers. The fuscia, for instance, 

 is of a very simple formation and well adapted to practice on ; also 

 the tulip and gladiolus, and lily ; afterwards they can try some more 

 complicated flowers. The same general principles apply to all. The 

 Salvia Splendens and Salvia Patens have a great promise, the Salvia 

 Patens being the finest blue in the floral world and the Splendens,, 

 with its unmatched brilliancy, I believe, have not yet been tested in 

 this way and promise great results. 



Nature has many varied and interesting methods of cross fer- 

 tilizing flowers; some by the action of the wind and gravitation, as 

 in the corn plant, the staminate flower being produced at the top of 

 the plant and the pistilate lower down. When the polen is ripe it falls 

 in a shower on the receptive pistils (the silk). It is also blown about 

 by the wind, so that different varieties of corn planted near each 

 other get "mixed" and the seed will not produce the true type of 

 that originally sown. The cucurbits (or melon, cucumbers, squash, 

 etc.) have the same tendency to "mix" or become cross polenized, 

 they having the staminate and pistilate blossoms on the same plant, 

 but separate from another, and in this case the staminate flowers 

 vastly outnumber the pistilate. On the other hand, the holly has 

 the two classes of flowers on different trees, and the tree will not 

 bear its beautiful scarlet berries unless it has perfect flowers or has 

 a staminate flowered tree in its vicinity. Some plants (such as the 

 sweet pea and others of the same family) fertilize themselves before 

 the flower opens, and consequently do not get "mixed," if growing 

 close together. This is important to the hybridizer, as showing the 

 necessity of emasculating the flower to be hybridized before they 

 fully open to prevent self fertilization. Again, some fruit have not 

 the power of self fertilization, as the Bartlett and Beurre d'Anjou 

 pear. A remarkable illustration of this peculiarity occurred some 

 years ago in Oregon, near Salem, where a gentleman came into 

 possession of 160 acres and began to cast about what to do with it. 

 At that time Oregon apples and pears had a high reputation on the 

 Pacific Coast, and he interviewed some of his neighbors who had 



