PEODUOTION OP NEW VAEIETIES. 59 



and kept until the other tree comes into flower, and may then 

 be applied by means of a fine camel's hair pencil. When the 

 pollen has been applied to the pistil of these flowers, they should 

 be enclosed in a piece of gauze or thin book muslin, to prevent 

 anything from interfering with your work. It is advisable tO' 

 repeat the application of the pollen on each day for a few succes- 

 sive days, a^ it may be that at the first application the stigma had 

 not reached that stage which was favorable to the reception of the 

 pollen and its growth. This operation can only be well done in 

 dry weather, for it is only then that the poUen will be dry and 

 dust-Hke. If gathered in this state, and kept as already directed, 

 it will preserve its vitality for a considerable time, thus rendering 

 it an easy matter to procure pollen from trees at some distance 

 from those upon which you desire to operate. Care must be 

 taken to deprive the flower which you wish to fertilize of all its 

 anthers, before they have burst and thrown out their pollen upon 

 the pistils, for if the poUen has fertilized ^he germs at the base 

 of the pistils, no subsequent application of other pollen will be 

 of any avail. 



This work of cross-fertilization can be performed with aU our 

 fmits, and the excellences of one variety of apple be combined 

 with those of another, or of one variety of pear with another, or 

 of plum or cherry, strawberry, raspberry, grape, &c., &c. ; but 

 seed-bearing fruits, such as the apple, pear and quince, cannot be 

 crossed with the stone-bearing fruits, as the cherry and plum. 

 What are the precise limits within which this cross-fertilization 

 can be effected have not yet been fully ascertained, and a very 

 interesting field of discovery lies opened here before the careful 

 experimenter. If it shall be found that the apple can be crossed 

 with the pear, or the pear with the apple, as some facts seem to 

 indicate, or the plum and cherry can be made to unite in cross- 

 fertilization, or the strawberry with the raspberry, what new 

 creations lie open before the experimenter. But even within the 

 already ascertained field of cross-fertUization, there is plenty of 

 scope for experiment, and much that is valuable as well as inte- 

 resting will reward our labors. 



