34 STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



this orange with its combination of disagreeable qualities been 

 changed and modified, and some of its qualities eliminated, to 

 give us the Konah, the St. Michael, the Washington Nave], 

 and other meritorious varieties? 



Staminal or Male Characteristics. — By the law of vegetable 

 growth, plants construct and form themselves; they increase 

 and multiply themselves. The orange multiplies by the root 

 growth of adventitious buds, that eventually form perfect 

 trees; by cuttings; by the development of buds in the limb, 

 that grow to branches and fruitfulness; and by a seed embryo 

 developed in the ripened fruit. The adventitious bud in the 

 root, and the branch bud are the result of the sex impulse dis- 

 tributed through the entire tree structure. The embryo of the 

 seed is the result of special adaptations in the structure of the 

 leaf. The perfect development of the nucleus of the seed is 

 the strength of the united reproductive functions of the entire 

 tree, and although the root and branch buds are liable to 

 "sport" and give new or modified varieties, it is to the stami- 

 nate and pistillate modifications that we must look for the 

 primary changes in the fruit and tree habits of growth. 



The least modification impressed upon the pollen impulse, 

 and the receptivity of the ovarian cell, will change, modify, or 

 eliminate some habit of the tree, or quality of the fruit, in the 

 embryo and bud. 



It is apparent that in the bitter orange of the higaradia, the 

 male or staminal power is in the ascendancy. The whole tree 

 in all its manifestations, is sufli'used by this power. It primar- 

 ily affects the cell of the leaf, the branch, and root. It influ- 

 ences the vitality, the strength, and the compactness of the 

 protoplasmic unit in the pollen germ. It is manifested in the 

 heavy compact limb, the stout eft'ective thorn, the resistant 

 and strong terminal root growth, the thick leaf, the pungent 

 oils, the bitter compounds of the rind and cells of the carpel 

 and in the capacity to resist the elaboration of sugar from the 

 fruit acid, compelling the slow development of a strong germi- 

 native and generative seed. 



Modifications in the Pollen Impulse. — Either by nature or cul- 

 tivation the strength of the pollen impulse was changed. The 

 staminate or male power of the bitter orange was acted upon, 



