of Medicago falcata. Of one hundred and four exposed 

 clusters of Tslossoms with 940 "blossoms, 152 pods were 

 produced with 177 seeds, whereas 206 covered clusters 

 with 1882 blossoms produced no seeds at all. As the 

 pistils are closely surrounded by the stamen, spontaneous 

 self fertilization must take place, but without effect." 



Kirchner carried out experiments with the flowers of 

 leguminous plants, during the years of 1900 to 1904. He 

 classified them as either self fertile or self sterile. 

 He classifies both Medicago sativa and M, falcata among 

 the self sterile species. 



Medicago Plo-wers Tripping Historical Resume' 



After Hunters report on the relation of insects to 

 alfalfa which was published in 1898 the next discussion 

 of this subject, which is recorded in this country, is 

 by Mr. J. M. Westgate, of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture in a paper presented at the American Breeders' 

 Association at Lincoln, Nebraska, Jan, 17 to 19, 1906. 

 He presented a brief review of the work of Henslow, Urban, 

 Kirchner and Burkhill. He pointed out the general dis- 

 agreements between the results that have been obtained by 

 different investigators. He suggested that a great deal 

 of work needs to be done on the subject of the fertilizat- 

 ion of alfalfa with the object of determining to what 



(69) 



