118 THE GARDEN BEAUTIFUL 



after a fashion, in their own garden, and also to 

 have those unlike any to be found elsewhere. Here 

 is where the charm of crossing comes in. Get the 

 best bulbs you can buy ; no use fooling with inferior 

 parents if you desire high-grade offspring. Pull up 

 and throw away any coming into flower that are 

 off in color, size, form or vigor. Plant breeding 

 answers to the same rules as animal breeding, so 

 pick none but the best parents. When you have 

 spikes coming into bloom and wish to cross, you 

 had best proceed in the following manner: Take 

 off, simply by picking with the fingers, the three 

 stamens every blossom has, being sure that no part 

 of them remains on the slender stem on which they 

 hang. This emasculation should be rigidly followed 

 out as early as possible every morning. The sta- 

 mens of your choicest should be saved, as they con- 

 tain the all-necessary pollen ; the remainder may be 

 thrown away. 



Every stamen has two long, narrow pollen sacs 

 which may easily be found by examination. Take 

 a little of the pollen on the end of a toothpick and 

 put in the "throat" and "troughs" of the three- 

 pronged pistil, using enough to completely choke the 

 mouth of the small tube which runs down to the 

 ovaries at base of blossom. We who are looking for 

 scientific determinations only fertilize our blossoms 

 somewhat differently; the author pollenizes each 

 floret three mornings in succession and covers each 

 spike with a paper sack, tying it about the stem to 

 prevent insects entering the blossom. Commercial 

 growers do not take these precautions except in 

 case of a few "pets," and it is not strictly necessary, 

 for a pistil well choked with pollen is not very liable 

 to contamination by other pollen. Small sacks or 

 boxes should be provided for the seeds on which is 



