1872 . ] 
CROSS-BREEDING PELARGONIUMS.-NO. I. 
11 
care not to injure the pistil; this should he done before the pollen-sacs burst, if 
possible, but certainly before the pistil has become expanded. Should the pollen 
have been thrown out, it will be necessary to remove every grain that may be 
scattered by means of a camel-hair brush ; to make doubly sure, I also blow 
violently through the blow-pipe direct upon the pistil. I then examine the pip 
with my glass, to see if I have thoroughly effected my object. My next proceed¬ 
ing would be to enter in note-book No. 1 (under number) the name of the plant, 
viz., the seed-bearer, also that of the intended father or pollen plant, together 
with a remark as to the result I expect to be produced ; I then take one of the 
little slips of card, and pencil upon it the corresponding number to my entry, and 
with one twist of the wire it is fastened round the stalk of the truss. 
I have supposed the pistil up to this period to be an erect and straight 
column, and consequently incapable of receiving fertilization ; by the morrow, 
or perhaps not until the following day, this column will have become split into 
five segments for one-third of its length downwards ; or, in other words, the 
pistil will have expanded, and the stigma or upper surface of each segment 
presented itself for impregnation; As soon as possible after this takes place 
the pollen should be applied, but before doing so I examine the stigma 
with my glass, to see that I have not been forestalled by insect intervention, and 
that the stigma is in a perfect state of virginity. My next step is to detach, by 
means of my knife, some anthers that have recently thrown out their pollen from 
a pip of the intended father, catching them in the watch-glass, which should 
have been carefully wiped to ensure that there are no remains of previous pollen; 
I then take up one of the anthers with my forceps and apply it to the stigma, 
using the glass to see that I have completely covered its surface with the pollen. 
Some recommend that the pollen should be applied by means of a camel-hair 
pencil, but there is danger of extraneous pollen being used by this method, and 
hence I consider it is objectionable. 
If I am short of the pollen I have been using, I should put any surplus 
anthers that I had detached into one of the little bottles (which must be perfectly 
clean and dry), carefully cork it, and place it in the dark until required ; but this 
pollen I should not use, if fresh could be obtained. In like manner I should en¬ 
deavour to economize a pip or flower that I was very desirous of fertilizing. If, for 
instance, a day’s neglect had permitted the expansion of the pistil with the anthers 
not removed, in which case the pollen-sacs would have burst, I should direct a 
sharp blast through the blow-pipe on the centre of the pistil. By this means I 
generally succeed in sending the anthers and pollen flying without danger of fer¬ 
tilizing the pistil; but if upon examination I find a grain of the pollen has found 
its way to the stigma, I at once remove that pip with my scissors. 
In most of the varieties of the Pelargonium the anthers burst and fall off 
prior to the expansion of the pistil, or the pistil stands up above and expands 
over the falling stamens, and consequently does not become impregnated except 
by some foreign agency ; but there are some varieties, especially those with petals 
