hem or among them.

A knowledge of the necessity of pollination is very important to those
gardeners who grow cucumbers, tomatoes, melons and other fruiting
plants in greenhouses. Here in most cases the pollination is done by
hand.

We noticed that nature provides that most of the flowers shall be
cross pollinated. This is particularly true of the flowers of the
fruit trees, and for this reason it is impossible to get true
varieties of fruit from seed. For example, if we plant seeds of the
wine sap apple, the new trees produced from them will not produce the
same kind of apple but each tree will produce something different and
they will very likely all be poorer than the parent fruit. This is
because of the mixture of pollens which fertilize the pistils. Knowing
this fact the nurseryman plants apple seeds and grows apple seedlings.
When these get to be the size of a lead pencil he grafts them, that
is, he digs them up, cuts off the tops away down to the root and then
takes twigs from the variety he wishes to grow and sets or splices
these twigs in the roots of the seedlings and then plants them. The
root and the new top unite and produce a tree that bears the same kind
of fruit as that produced by the tree from which the twig was taken.

These are a few of the reasons why it is well to know something about
flowers and their work.

[Illustration: FIG. 76.--FLOWER OF A LILY.
Notice how the stigma and the anthers are kept as far as possible from
each other to guard against self-pollination and to insure
cross-pollination.]

[Illustration: FIG. 77.
Bud and flower of jewel-weed, or "touch-me-not." _A._ Interior of bud.
Stamens are seen, but there appears to be no pistil. _B._ Section of
bud showing the pistil concealed behind the stamens. _C._ Bee entering
flower comes in contact with stamens and is loaded with pollen. _D._
Same bee entering older flower. The stamens have ripened and been
pushed off by the lengthened pistil, which is brushed by the back of
the bee, and thus is pollinated. This is a contrivance to insure
cross-pollination.]

[Illustration: FIG. 78.
_A._ Pistillate flower of strawberry.
_B._ Perfect flower of strawberry. (Drawing by M.E. Feltham.)]

FRUIT

The pistil develops and forms the fruit of the plant. This fruit bears
seed for the production of new plants. This fruit may be a dry pod
like the bean or pea, or it may be a fleshy fruit like the apple or
plum. Now the developing pistil or fr