4° 



PLANT CULTURE 



Fig. II — Daisy like Flower 

 A, Flower of Calendula; note disc florets, or tubular flowers at center and ray florets, 

 or showy flowers around, the outside. B, A ray floret; note the stigma of the pistil. 

 C, A disc floret; note the five-parted corolla, the ring of stamens at center surrounding 



the pistil. 



the inner row is made up of tubular flowers. They ripen at differ- 

 ent times and shed their pollen on each other. 



Insects and the wind usually carry the pollen from one flower 

 to the next, but there are some flowers which shed their poUen upon 

 their own pistil. This sort of flower is said to be self-fertilized or 

 close-pollinated. The Peas and Beans are examples. 



In hybridizing work the object is usually to cross two sorts of 

 plants for the improvement of one or the other in some way. Let 

 us suppose we are to cross a Tomato. The Tomato flower is a perfect 

 flower; the stamens are found in a ring about the pistil at the center. 

 In order to get a hybrid between two varieties, say the Stone and 

 Earliana, we will use Stone as the female parent — in other words, 

 we expect the Stone to bear the fruit, but will take the pollen from 

 the Earliana. Just before the flower of the Stone opens in the early 

 morning we should use a small forceps or a needle to forcibly open 

 the flower and remove its stamens. This is emasculation. We are 

 eliminating the male part. The pistil must not be injured. After 

 this we will place a bag over the flower so that no other pollen may 

 lodge upon the flower. Should a bee bring pollen to our flower it 



