74 THE PEANUT— THE UNPREDICTABLE LEGUME 



hours, wither in 48 hours, pegs elongate in 72 hours, visibly so in 4 or 5 

 days, and complete development of fruit and seed takes about 60 to 62 

 days from fertilization. Badami emasculated the flowers from S p.m. to 

 midnight and pollinated them between 6 and 7 a.m. 



According to investigations of Stokes and Hull (69) the stigma is 

 buried among dehisced anthers in the tightly closed keel of the mature 

 flowers. The flowers are fully opened before dawn, the anthers dehisced. 

 The flowers wither the day of anthesis and fertilization does not hasten 

 withering. The flowers were emasculated between 10 and 11 p.m. Acci- 

 dental pollination was considered unlikely. Thrips were about the only 

 visitors in the greenhouse. Pollinations were made between 8 and 10 a.m. 

 and were about 50 percent successful. The cross-pollinated flowers were 

 labelled by means of a thread attached to the flower and later transferred 

 to the peg. Plants were cultured in 4- gallon stone jars and kept pruned 

 back. Fruiting inhibited flowering and flowering could be induced by 

 removing the fruits. 



Umen (73) used the technique of removing all the flowers from the 

 inflorescence except the one to be cross-pollinated. In this manner the 

 first flower of an inflorescence could be used, the remainder removed. 

 When this is the case the probability of successful development of the 

 fruit is greater and the opportunity for mistaken identity of the cross 

 , almost eliminated. Emasculation was done with forceps between the 

 hours of 2 and 8 p.m. the day before the flowers were to open. Bagging 

 the emasculated flowers was found to be unnecessary. The pollinations 

 were made early the next day. The plants were grown in pots. 



Patel et al. (48) emasculated the buds between 5 and 6 p.m. The re- 

 sult was checked by a hand lens. Pollination was effected between 7 and 

 8 a.m. Ten to 30 percent of the pollinations were successful. The flowers 

 were not bagged. The plants were grown in large pots. The crosses were 

 marked by different colored threads. After 4 to 5 days the thread was 

 transferred to the peg. 



(b) Vegetative propagation 



Many things coordinate the forces of -adversity on the would-be 

 peanut breeder. Only a few hours are available for emasculation each 

 day and these fall at the rather inconvenient time when ordinary men are 

 preparing to go to bed. It should be added that each emasculation con- 

 sumes several minutes so that the total for an evening's work is rather 

 small. Some alleviation of this difficulty is obtained by the propagation 

 of peanuts from cuttings. The number of plants grown from each hybrid 

 seed can be much increased by use of this technique. Sufficient work 



