RAISING NEW VARIETIES 8 1 



The stigmatic surface, ordinarily yellow in 

 colour, is more or less cup-shaped. The 

 pollen is shaken into the contained fluid, 

 which shortly afterward will be found to 

 have been absorbed and the pollen remains 

 stranded on the papillar surface of the 

 stigma. 



If fertilisation is successful the ovary 

 begins to swell within eight days. If un- 

 successful, there is no swelling and the flower, 

 remaining near the surface of the water, soon 

 decays. It is well to cut off" two or three 

 flowers immediately following the one just 

 fertilised, thus insuring greater supply of food. 

 The seed is harvested and handled subse- 

 quently as told in the chapter on " seed saving 

 and starting. " 



Different results are often obtained by 

 using one species as male and the other as 

 female parent and vice versa, for which 

 reason a cross should always be attempted 

 both ways. 



While any of the results obtained may be 

 propagated indefinitely in a vegetative manner 



