22 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
and dense terminal spikes of pure white flow' 
ers, which often gracefully curve at the apex. 
The resemblance between the flower-spikes of 
this, and those of the beautiful Sweet Pepper- 
idge, or Clethra, of our swamps, suggested the 
specific name, clethroides , clethra-like for the 
plant. We are informed that this has one 
quality unusual in a herbaceous plant, i. e ., the 
leaves take on autumnal colors, and show fine 
tints of red and yellow, much after the manner 
of those of the Sugar Maple. Apparently the 
Loosestrife is not known in British gardens, 
and the few persons who have it here do 
not know how or -when it was introduced; 
but it is not unlikely that the seed •was ac¬ 
cidentally brought in with other Japanese 
plants. A plant with the merit of this will 
soon find its way into general cultivation. 
-—- 
How Flowers are Fertilized. 
BY PROF. ASA GRAY. 
FIRT ARTICLE.—CAMPANULAS, OR BELL-FLOWERS. 
One of the leading horticultural papers some 
time ago had an article on Campanulas ; in which 
it was asserted that there were no hybrid Campanu¬ 
las, and a reason was given for it. The reason was, 
that these flowers arc fertilized in the bud, so as to 
give no chance for natural crossing. 
I am not sure it is true that there are no hybrids 
in this genus. It may be that the writer jumped 
to the conclusion that there are none, because “ the 
flowers are fertilized in the bud.” 
And I am very sure that he is 
mistaken about that. The ac¬ 
count struck me, at the time, as 
a good case for showing how 
easy it is to be mistaken, even 
about a matter that one sees 
with his own eyes, and would be 
ready to swear to. I presume 
that the writer saw the thing 
correctly; but he did not see 
into it, much less through it. 
As I believe he is not the only 
Pig- !• horticulturist who has fallen into 
this same kind of mistake, as the mistake is one 
which a hasty observer would be almost certain to 
make, and as the case is a very instructive one in 
several respects, I think it worth while to bring 
out the facts by the aid of a few illustrations. 
Our readers will mostly have to take this account 
upon trust until next summer, and then they can 
see for themselves, as, indeed, it is to be hoped 
that the younger ones will. For these Campanulas 
arc among the commonest as well as handsomest 
garden flowers—not forgetting also the Blue-bells 
or Hare-bells of our rocky woods. Almost every 
garden has Canterbury Bells, and many of them 
two or three perennial species such as Campa¬ 
nula persiccefolia, (called Peach-leaved Campanula, 
though the foliage would never suggest to us that 
name), with its handsome pure white upright bells; 
and later in the season C. Carpathica, (the Car- 
Fig. 2.— BELL-FLOWER CUT OPEN. 
pathian Bell-flower), with blue flowers much re¬ 
sembling our wild Blue-bell on a larger scale, is 
common. Then there is the Great-flowered Cam¬ 
panula, now called Platycodon by the botanists, 
Fig. 3. 
conspicuous for its balloon-shaped corolla in the 
bud, opening into a broad and flattish bell. All of 
these tell the same story, with a little difference in 
the details only. The one which our sketches were 
made from, is Campanula rapunculoides, which we 
have not got a good common name for, though the 
plant is getting to be a weed around old gardens, 
and escaping to the road-sides. The English botan¬ 
ists call it Creeping Bell-flower, on account of its 
running roots, but its spiry stems are bolt upright, 
so that this name has no sense to those who do not 
look below the surface. It is one of the least 
showy and least desirable of all the Bell-flowers; 
in fact, is not desirable at all, but in our gardens is 
a nuisance, on account of the way it has of spread¬ 
ing by the root, every bit of which left in the 
ground will grow, so that it is not easy to be rid of 
it when it has once taken possession. 
Although I may presume that most of the readers 
of the American Agriculturist know a little botany, 
yet, to make our narative plain to all, it 
may not be amiss to explain what we 
mean by fertilization in a flower. Within 
the leaves or cup of a perfect flower, 
such as of a Campanula, are the parts 
answering to the two sexes, stamens 
aDd pistils ; the former surrounding the 
latter. The engravings, which show the 
flower sliced lengthwise through the 
middle, show, in fig. 1, two of the 
stamens in the bud, and in fig. 2, three 
of them as they appear in a blossom 
that has been a day or two open. The 
stamen produces pollen —grains appear¬ 
ing like a yellow powder to the naked 
eye—contained in the anther. This in 
the flower-bud shows a very short stalk ; 
in the open flower (fig. 2), this stalk, (called the 
filament ), has lengthened. The pistil , in the center, 
has at bottom the ovary, containing numerous 
ovules, which are to be seeds ; the column which 
surmounts it is called the style; and the 
three forks at the top of this, or more 
strictly, the inner or upper faces of 
them, are the stigmas. Now the upshot 
of the matter is, that, for the setting of 
seed, i. e., that the ovules may have an 
embryo formed in them, and so become 
seeds, it is necessary that pollen should 
be placed on the stigmas. When this 
is done, each grain of pollen sends 
down into the stigma, and through the 
style a thread-like growth, which reach¬ 
es the ovules and fertilizes £hem. Unless 
pollen is deposited upon the stigma, 
and acts in the manner described, there 
is n o fertilization, and of course no seeds. 
The writer of the article mentioned 
at the beginning—some English horti¬ 
culturist, I have entirely forgotten who 
it was—says that Campanulas are fer¬ 
tilized in the flower-bud before it opens. 
Seemingly he had good reasons for say¬ 
ing so. For the five anthers shed all 
their pollen while still imprisoned in the 
unopened corolla. By the time this 
opens, (as seen in our section fig. 2, which shows 
three of them), the anthers are emptj 7 and begin¬ 
ning to wither. Moreover, the pollen which they 
contained, has been bodily deposited upon the 
pistil! The style, as shown in the center of fig. 1, 
is beset with bristly hairs, rendered sticky by a 
slight glutinous moisture. As the five anthers, 
closely surrounding it, open down the inside, and 
discharge their pollen, this is nearly all caught and 
retained by these hairs, which are loaded with pol¬ 
len. (The hairy surface with pollen sticking to it is 
seen on the style in fig. 1; and in fig. 2 some of the 
pollen is still seen on the upper part of the style, 
close to the stigmas.) Then the corolla expands, 
the style lengthens below, the withering empty 
anthers lie loose towards the bottom of the flower ; 
and so the work seems to be done. 
Not at all! The pollen is on the style, and, as 
concerns its office, it might just as well be still in 
the anthers ; for not a grain of it acts there to fer¬ 
tilize the seeds. The three forks of the top of the 
style arc closed at first, and so they remain for a day 
Fig. 4. 
or two after the corolla opens, completely shutting 
in the stigmas, which occupy only their inner face. 
Even these forks have their backs loaded with pol¬ 
len, which is thus brought very near indeed to the 
place where it is wanted, but not. at it; and the 
adage holds true, that “ a miss is as good [or as 
bad] as a mile.” With all this seeming, no “fer¬ 
tilization in the bud ” has taken place. If that is 
what is intended, the thing is a manifest failure. 
Indeed, from this point of view, it is difficult to 
see how the flower is to fertilize itself at any time. 
After the flower has been open a day or two, and 
the lower part of the style has grown considerably 
longer, so as to carry up higher the pollen-loaded 
portion, the forks at the top separate, spread out 
horizontally, or recurve, and expose the stigmas, 
as fig. 2 shows. But, whether the flower stands 
erect, as in some species, or nods or hangs inverted 
as in others, there is small chance that any of the 
pollen gets upon the stigmas. 
What really takes place is this. When the blos¬ 
soms open, they are visited by insects, especially by 
bees. They come perhaps far a little nectar at the 
bottom of the corolla, but mainly for pollen, a 
most nutritious material. This they gather from 
the style and carry away with them, passing from 
flower to flower. When a bee comes to a flower 
freshly opened, it finds abundance of pollen, in 
which it revels, and with which it loads itself; but 
the stigmas, snugly closed, get none of it. When 
it flies to an older flower, it comes directly against 
the three-rayed stigmas, outspread at the entrance, 
and dusts them with pollen ; and so on from flower 
to flower. Instead of self-fertilizing, it depends 
upon the bees. The bee does the work on shares; 
and there is plenty of pollen provided for both. 
There is a rarer sort of Campanula in our garden, 
called Symphyandra, which means “ anthers joined 
together.” In the flower-bud they are as in fig. 3 ; 
in the older open flowers, as in fig. 4. The corolla 
in both the engravings is cut away. You have only 
to imagine this in the form of a bell around these 
figures, which stand in place of the clapper. The 
difference between this flower with the long name 
and true Campanula is only this, that the anthers 
never separate. They open inside in the bud, and 
discharge their pollen upon the hairy style in the 
center; then this lengthens ; in fig. 3 the tip of the 
style is seen just projecting at the top ; in fig. 4 from 
an old flower, after brushing all the pollen out of the 
closed tube, it has carried it up to a convenient 
position for the bees ; and the three stigmas have 
opened, ready to take what the coming bee may 
bring, before loading up anew from the bountiful 
store on the style below. 
In a second article we will see how this idea is 
carried out, with a difference, in flowers of another 
family. The moral of this story is: Look twice 
before leaping to a conclusion. 
--— <——— • *—-. *■ 
Notes from the Pines. 
Our correspondent at “ The Pines ” sends us full 
and seasonable note's, but we have only room for 
the following novelty in Water-Cress culture. He 
says: Ever since I have lived here, I have been 
anxious over the subject of 
Water-Cress. 
There is no brook on the place, and the river is 
not available. I have wondered if sufficient water 
might not be found by tapping the hill with a hor- 
rizontal well, have considered cemented tanks, and 
various other contrivances, but those who have 
written, and those who profess to know, have all 
said in effect: “ It is of no use to try to grow 
water-cress, unless in a running stream with a grav¬ 
elly bottom.” I turned from these authorities 
with a resolution that some time or other I would 
convince myself, at least, that water-cresses could 
be grown without “ a running stream and gravelly 
bottom.” It was one of the “things to be done” 
down on my mental memorandum book, and I 
hardly know whether I was pleased or not, on 
opening the last Gardeners' Magazine, (Eng.), to 
find that Shirley Hibbard had “gone and done it,” 
and thus quite cut me out. Well, it is only another 
