(6 AMERICAN HOME GARDEX. 



the liop, kc, Figs. 60 c, d, 61, 3, 4 ; asparagus, spinach, the 

 |)apaw also, and persimmon, often the sassafras, and some vari- 

 eties of om- wild grape-vines, are of this character. These ai'e 

 knofl-n as " dioecious," or of two houses, the whole plant hear- 

 ing the fertilizers being fiiiitless. 



hi mere seed or grain-bearing plants, the fertilization of the 

 fruit-bearing iiower or its equivalent organs — for some plants 

 do not produce flowers, properly so called — is absolutely neces- 

 sary to obtaining product. Thus, where single spears or hills 

 of com stand far apart from others, the ears never fill, because, 

 whichever way the wind may draw, the fertilizing jiowder, 

 as it falls from the topgallant, is carried away, and but little 

 of it settles upon and fertilizes the silk, each thread of which 

 connects with an incipient grain, and hence the failm-e. 



In the various fruit-tearing plants, the fertilization of the 

 fruit-bearing flower is equally essential to the production of 

 perfect seed, and generally it maj' be regardei.l as important to 

 the fonnation of frait, inasmuch as the latter, being a mere ap- 

 pendage or covering for the former, may bie supposed likely to 

 fail with it ; and such, in general, is the fact. The fii'st drop- 

 ping of 3'oung fruit, which, even after an abundant show of 

 Ijlossoms, sometimes extends to the whole orchard crop, is, I 

 believe, mainly due to the imperfection or total faiku'e of the 

 fertilization, whether this ai'ises from drought and glaring sun- 

 shine, from unseasonaljle cold, an inopportune storm, or from 

 other less manifest causes ; all such dropped frait is seedless 

 or germless. But at least a partial crop of fruit may be ob- 

 tained where this fertilization has not Iteen effected, as we 

 sometimes find apples without seeds in the core ; and in the 

 larger vegetable fruits, as melons, &c., which are mainly re- 

 sults of cultivation, it is easily conceivable that, without fer- 

 tilization of the flower, fitiit may be produced, yielding, how- 

 ever, only shriveled and abortive seeds, or such as, if appa- 

 rently full fjiined, yet actually lack the essential geiin, and 

 are, of com-se, without vitality. The " fig-apple," as it is called 

 by Duhamel, which has only pistils, being destitute of stamens, 

 as well as without petals, beai-s fair and tolera?jle fruit, but never 

 yields seeds. In these exceptional cases of fruitful nonfertil- 



