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FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 



the simple process of growing a few of the very best sorts, 

 keeping them in an airy greenhouse, and saving all the 

 seed they produce. But the prudent way is to fertilise them 

 artificially, in which case all male flowers should be removed 

 in the bud from the plants selected for seed-bearing, but the 

 female flowers need not be removed. 



The beginner in begonia culture will be inclined to ask, 

 " How shall I distinguish the males from the females ? " 

 There is nothing easier. You know how different are the 

 flowers of a pumpkin or a cucumber — one produces golden 

 pollen, but has no fruit at its base ; the other produces no 

 pollen, but there is the fruit complete, though small, 

 attached to the base of the flower, and distinguishable in 

 the very earliest stage while the flower-bud is yet but a 

 mite of a thing. It is just the same with the begonia. 

 Usually the flowers appear in threes, two gentlemen with a 

 lady between them. But this is no matter. The female 

 flower has a triangular fruit or seed-pod at the baseband 

 the male flower has nothing. 



