PROPAGATION OF PLANTS. 



97 



or male organs, while the silk and ear are the pistillate 

 parts ; such plants are called monoecious. In other in- 

 stances, as spinach, the flowers which contain the stamens 

 are not found upon the same individual plant with those 

 that bear the pistils. These are called dioecious plants. 



Cross breeding, where both sexes are united in the same 

 blossom, is accomplished by removing the stamens and 

 dusting the pistil with the pollen of a different variety, a 

 simple process ; but from the resulting seed a new variety, 

 partaking somewhat of the qualities of both parents, will 

 be produced. Care is required in the process. A blossom 

 must be selected not fully expanded, and all the anthers 

 be cut out and removed. Protect the blossom with a 

 loose bag of gauze to keep off the bees. As soon as the 

 blossom is fully expanded, collect on a camel's hair pencil 

 the pollen from a full blown flower of the variety selected 

 for the male parent, and apply it to the stigma or point 

 of the pistil. The conditions are a careful extraction of 

 the anthers before they are advanced enough to fertilize 

 the pistil, and to apply the selected pollen when in perfec- 

 tion, that is, in a powdery state, upon the stigma while 

 still moist, and to prevent natural fertilization from pollen 

 carried by insects or by the wind. Cross breeding often 

 takes place naturally. If different varieties of corn are 

 planted near together, often three or four kinds and colors 

 of grain will be found upon one ear from natural inter- 

 mixture. 



But there are limits to the power of crossing plants. 

 Those between two varieties of the same species, as be- 

 tween two kinds of corn or pear, are common enough, and 

 these are fruitful and produce perfect seeds. In the same 

 genera, also, certain nearly allied species are capable of 

 fertilizing each other ; the offspring in this case is called a 

 hybrid, and does not always produce perfect seeds. Thus 

 the different species of the strawberry, also those of the 

 gourd and melon family, readily intermix. So also do 

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