450 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
September 15. ! 
the juice in the parts is sufficient to ripen the pollen 
after the flower-buds and flower-stalks, are separated 
from the plant; and that it is not safe to trust to the 
anthers getting too near the ripe stage before the flowers 
are cut off, lest they go on to bursting before the spe¬ 
cimen is dried. If all this is kept in view, the rest, 
about the length of time, and best ways of drying, will 
easily be found out in the course of practice. 
We know of nothing now to be ascertained, from the 
whole circle of botany and gardening, of so much im- 
! portance to mankind, as the affirmative to all these 
suggestions ; for, let us be understood only as suggesting 
the probability of the subject being within our reach. 
The way they dry botanical specimens for the herbarium 
seems as good as any for drying pollen specimens. The 
first day or two the specimens are spread out, and held 
between sheets of blotting-paper in a book, the 
sheets or the position of the specimens being often 
| changed, so that the blotting-paper does not get wet or 
J damp. After a certain degree of drying, some pressure 
is applied, but this we must not indulge in too far for 
pollen-drying; the least weight might squeeze a ripe 
anther to the bursting point, when all would be lost. 
When the process is complete, the flower-buds, the 
flower-stalk, and the branch, if any, ought to look as 
natural and free from stains as an ear of corn, or a 
grass-stalk from the hay-rick. There is hardly a plant 
known of which a dried specimen is not kept by some 
one. Weeds are kept with as much zeal as the most 
gaudy flowers, and new names are now often determined 
by old specimens that have been preserved hundreds of 
years ago. It was from an old flower thus dried that 
we first took up the idea of saving pollen; on the appli¬ 
cation of moisture to the old dried pollen it exhibited 
all the symptoms of vitality, under a lens, that fresh 
pollen from the garden could do ; and knowing the vast 
stride in the improvement of races, which pollen ready 
at all seasons would give us, we arc anxious to press 
candidates into the field. 
Suppose, again, that we have dried pollen at hand, 
aud that fresh flowers are ready for dusting—take the 
dried flower, and, with the point of a pin, tear the anther 
open, then stick the pin through it, and carry it on the 
point of the pin to the stigma to be fertilised, and draw 
it two or three times across it, then give your hand a 
gentle touch to dust off the remaining part of the pollen, 
and the work is done. The plant may require to be 
kept out of the draught for some hours, as the old pollen 
may have to lie longer on the stigma than fresh pollen, 
before it effects the mysterious process. Who that has 
a Japan Lily now in bloom, that would not wish to have 
a ripe anther of some spring or summer lily to try his 
first experiment in crossing? Autumn and spring 
Crocuses, if they could thus be crossed, would give us 
flowers for the whole winter, and so on through all the 
families in the catalogue. 
There is one more branch of this subject, a most 
simple one, and yet it seems to have been a stumbling- 
block to every cross-breeder, here and abroad, who has 
I recorded his exploits. Notwithstanding the utmost pre¬ 
caution in guarding against the access of its own pollen 
into a flower—and even going so far as forcing two plants j 
in the spring, in order to make more sure of a cross— i 
they tell us, one after the other, that the produce was in 
nowise different from a natural seedling. We have no 
record, however, from anyone, of how ho destroyed the 
natural pollen, more than we have from those who failed 
to harvest pollen, how they managed or rather mis¬ 
managed the experiment; therefore, we must presume 
that they merely extracted the anthers, the moment the 
flower opened, or just the day previous to the opening, 
and let them (the anthers) take their chance. Here is 
just where the mistake lies—the anther, or rather, the 
pollen, is all but ripe in any flower when that flower is 
fit to open—or, if the extraction is done some days 
previous, we have seen that the juice in the stamen, or 
even in the anther itself, may be sufficient to ripen the 
pollen after the anthers are cut off; and we know the 
least breath of air will disperse ripe pollen in clouds 
like dust. Suppose, then, that you had extracted all the j 
anthers from a Geranium flower this morning, and let 
them drop down on the surface of the pot or border, 
that was not the least security against that very pollen 
entering the same flower from which it was extracted, 
and neutralizing the effect of another pollen; the air, or 
wind, the bees and ants, had the same power, and the 
insects the same will, to disperse the pollen from the 
fallen anthers, as they had when the pollen was allowed to 
ripen side-by-side with the stigma. We have often seen 
an ant carry a discarded anther a long distance in its 
mouth, up and down, through all parts of a plant, across 
the stage, and off to its nest. We never did see an insect 
carry up the pollen from a fallen anther back to the 
flower, and actually dust it on its sister stigma; but we 
see nothing to prevent the possibility of access in some 
such way, unless the anthers are actually squeezed to 
death between the finger and thumb the moment they 
are cut out-. One can never rely on success if a single 
anther has dropped where we cannot find it, so as to 
have it destroyed on the instant. The fact of letting 
a single anther escape destruction accounts, plainly 
enough, for the failure of any single experiment. 
D. B. i 
July, August, and September, may be suitable seasons 
for Poultry Exhibitions, so far as the projectors and 
their receipts only are concerned; but we have grave 
reasons for doubting how far the interest of poultry- 
keepers generally are served by the selection of these 
months. In fact, the season, and the condition of the 
birds themselves, so far, at least, as regards all beyond 
the chickens of the year, are both unfavourable. 
With the uncertainty peculiar to our English climate, 
we know not, especially during the last-named month, 
whether the weather may prove too hot for a room, or 
too cold and wet for the partial shelter of canvass. The 
latter case, we imagine, was very practically exemplified 
during the late Show at the Surrey Zoological Gardens. 
There are but few rooms in England, applicable to this 
