THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. Ill 



tion will only accidentally answer. The line and plum- 

 met way of proceeding is, first fix upon the florets the 

 tints of which you may imagine, from study of the 

 theory of colours in some such excellent treatise as 

 ChevreuFs, will tastefully combine with those of an- 

 other plant of the same genus, be it geranium, azalea, 

 pansy, &c. Catch the bud as it is opening, just before 

 Sir Bumble Bee attempts to worm himself in : open it 

 gently, and with a pair of fine-pointed scissors nip ofip 

 the heads of the stamens before the pollen has pow- 

 dered them (they break off quite readily at the merest 

 touch). If you would be sure of having seed, as there 

 is some uncertainty in these fancy flowers duly ripening, 

 operate as I have described upon every floret in the 

 pelargonium boss, and then encircle it in a bag of net 

 strained over cap-wire, bent transversely. The pistil, 

 or female organ of the flower (being a dark stem in 

 the midst of the stamen bunch) is not ripe so soon as 

 the stamens or male portion. Watch your charge nar- 

 rowly, and in a day or two you will observe that the 

 pistil has opened its button head into spreading antlers 

 like the horns of a butterfly. It is then covered with 

 a gummy deposit, to which the pollen dust will adhere. 

 Now, with a fine camel-hair brush, apply the farina off 

 the stamens of the other flower to it. Cover up again, 

 and leave it. The flower hath now performed its office. 

 Very shortly the petals will fall off, and the seed vessel 

 appear in full stature. Now set up the plant in the 

 sun to ripen, and you may with comparative certainty 

 look forward to the production of a new variety next 

 year. Before the horns of the pistil open, there being 

 no gummy dew, the pollen will not adhere. Hence the 

 wisdom of the natural arrangement. The stamens 



