NEW AND FANCY FRUITS 427 



their cattle. They succeeded in growing beautiful fields of 

 flowers the first year, but no fruit from which seed could be 

 harvested for the next year's crop. The farmers found it 

 expensive to import new clover seeds every year, and inquired 

 of the European farmers what caused their seeds to ripen. As 

 a result of an investigation, it was found that the bumblebee 

 pollinated the clover plant. The Australians immediately im- 

 ported bumblebees, and have since had no difficulty in getting 

 seeds for their future crops. 



New and fancy fruits. The seed is the result of pollen 

 and ovules from two parents, and the plant which grows from 

 the seed usually has some of the characteristics of both parents. 

 If pollen from a peach blossom is forced to grow on the stigma 

 of a plum blossom, fruit and seed will develop. But when the 

 seeds thus formed from a peach parent and a plum parent are 

 planted, they grow into plants bearing fruits which are like and 

 yet unlike the fruits of their parents. 



Fancy fruit growers originate new kinds of fruits by artifi- 

 cially pollinating flowers with pollen unlike their own. They 

 open flower buds, remove the anthers with their pollen, and 

 then tie bags around the flowers in order to protect them against 

 pollen carried by wind and insects. They now remove pollen 

 from another flower which they wish for a parent, open the bag, 

 and spread the pollen over the stigma. The unusual pollen 

 grains are the only ones on the stigma, and having no rivals, 

 they develop. In time fruit and seed form, and the seeds 

 grow into plants which differ from both parents, but which 

 show some of the characteristics of each. 



Apricot and plum blossoms have been cross-pollinated by 

 Luther Burbank and have given rise to a new fruit, the plumcot. 

 Potato and tomato blossoms were crossed by the same worker 

 and gave rise to another new fruit, the pomato. When plants 

 of different kinds are thus cross-pollinated, the result is known as 



