2 BULLETIN 962, U. S. DEPAKTMENT OF AGRICULTUKE. 



risii, Giganteum and Forniosum/ or even two plants of any one 

 of the above varieties. 



A grower will succeed more often by pollinating one plant on to 

 the other than by using only one parent plant, or, in other words, 

 selfing or pollinating a plant with its own pollen. It should be 

 understood, however, that the basis of the stocks now grown by the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry is selfed plants. But there was a delib- 

 erate purpose in view in starting in this way. The set of seed was 

 uniformly small in nearly all of these selfs. 



Pollination should be performed as soon as the stigma is receptive 

 and the pollen ripe. This stage can be determined by watching the 

 anthers as the flowers open. When the flower starts to open, the 

 anthers will usually be found with simply a slight crack along one 

 side, exposing a narrow line of dusty yellow pollen. After a time, 

 which will vary with the light, temperature, and moisture conditions, 

 the sides of this rupture will roll back, exposing the mass of dusty 

 pollen over the entire surface of the anther. As soon as this condi- 

 tion is evident the pollen should be transferred to the stigma which 

 is to be fertilized. The time which it will take from the gaping of 

 the flower until the stigma is receptive, i. e., ready to be pollinated, 

 will vary with atmospheric conditions. Under autumnal conditions 

 in the greenhouse in cloudy weather it has taken 27 or 28 hours after 

 the tube began to open before the stigma was receptive, while in the 

 open in July flowers starting to open about sunrise were ready to 

 be fertilized at 9 or 10 o'clock. The grower will have to determine 

 this period quite definitely. In general, it can be said that the stigma 

 is ready to receive pollen as soon as its surface becomes glossy on 

 account of the secretion of a viscid fluid, which in this lily is about 

 the time when the edges of the anthers have rolled back and com- 

 pletely exposed the yellow dusty pollen content. The sooner the pol- 

 lination is done after these conditions obtain the better. 



The Easter lily may be grown under wide extremes of conditions, 

 but it is difficult under conditions which might be termed inter- 

 mediate. It seems to be a safe crop when properl}?^ handled in the 

 climate of either Washington, D. C, or the frostless Bermudas, but 

 in the Gulf States it succumbs to the occasional low Avinter tempera- 

 tures. This is not by any means without a parallel, the most strik- 

 ing one, possibly, being the hardiness of the Concord grape on the 

 Great Lakes and its tenderness to frost conditions in Florida, and is 

 readily explainable by the fact that farther north the plants are 

 dormant during cold weather, while in the intermediate region they 



1 The botanical name of the Easter lily is Lilium longiflorwm . The above names desig- 

 nate varieties which in commercial literature are usually referred to as here used with- 

 out reference to their technical specific designation, L. longiflorum. 



