PROPAGATION, BREEDING 117 
pollination. Now just what is meant by 
this term? 
To give a clear idea, a little of the detail 
of the growth and development of flowers 
is necessary. When the flower of a straw- 
berry opens, around the outside edge is seen 
five white leaves, called petals. One of their 
functions is to attract insects to the blossoms. 
Toward the centre of the flower are seen 
a lot of little tubelike bodies with caps on 
their heads or tops, called stamens. In these 
caplike bodies are small grains of a yellow 
substance, called pollen. This is the male part 
of the flower and is the part that when placed, 
at a certain time, on the top of the pistil 
of a strawberry flower, germinates or grows, 
sending down a small tube or root into the 
ovary of the pistil, there uniting with the 
female parts and starting the growth and 
development of the seed and flesh of the 
fruit. By this it is seen that to obtain 
strawberry fruits, pollen must be produced 
and deposited on the top of the pistil. 
At the centre of the flower, underneath 
the stamens, is found a collection of vaselike 
structures. These are the pistils. Each 
pistil develops a certain part of the flesh of 
