the style, and at the end of this style is the stigma or place where the pollen grain must fall to form seeds. The stigma is usually knob-shaped.

Pollination is the placing of the pollen from one plant upon the stigma of another plant. Fertilization takes place when the contents of the pollen grain unite with the ovule or contents of the ovary. Until this takes place no seed is developed, no matter how much pollen may be present. Furthermore, only one pollen grain can act.

In order to be sure that its own pollen does not act you must remove the stamens from the flower you wish to bear seed. Of course this must be done before any pollen has been shed.

The necessary tools are few-a pair of forceps or common tweezers, or, lacking these, a common steel hairpin, a pair of small scissors, a pocket knife, some twine and some white paper for tags, or the little price tags your dry-goods merchant uses. A little hand magnifier is nec

essary.

The choice of the plants you are to use is a matter of personal taste. Flowers, fruits, garden vegetables all are possibilities.

After the plants are chosen decide what you wish to breed for. In flowers, quantity of bloom, length of bloomperiod, color, hardiness and such characters are generally considered. The important thing is to have some definite ideal of what you wish to obtain and then work toward that ideal. Indiscriminate breeding may give you some interesting results, but the chances are that nothing of value will be obtained. Don't try to cross plants too far apart botanically. . . Choose your plants from the same botanical family and, if possible, the same genus. Take some common flower like the geranium to start with. Enough interesting things can be developed in that one flower to occupy you for years.

If the flowers of the plant chosen have both stamens and pistil developed, the stamens must be removed from the one that is to bear seed. To do this take flowers in which no pollen has been shed. The half-open ones will usually be in the right condition, but in some flowers, like the sweet pea, the pollen is shed before the flower begins to open, and in such cases very young flowers must be chosen. Shed pollen gives the anther a fuzzy, dusty appearance. Hold the flower carefully with one hand and, with the forceps, carefully pick off the petals that are in the way. Then pick off the anthers. As there are usually very many anthers be sure that you get them all. Avoid any unnecessary injury or mutilation. If the flowers are in clusters you should pick off all but the ones you wish to pollinate. This will give you stronger flowers.

Since the pollen from other flowers can easily be transferred to yours, protect your flower from foreign pollen immediately after emasculation by covering it with an ordinary paper sack or envelope. Tie this on carefully but firmly. If it is much exposed to water you can oil it with grease or vaseline.

After removing the stamens wait several days before you pollinate, in order to allow the stigma to become ripe or receptive. The exact length of time depends upon the age of the flower when operated upon-the younger the flower the longer the time you must wait. Here again a little observation will aid you, for, when receptive, the stigma excretes a gummy substance that gives it a moist appearance. This excretion causes the pollen to adhere and aids in the process of fertilization. Both pollen and stigma will remain active and receptive for several days if pollination does not take place at first maturity. Usually two to four days is plenty of time to wait, but if doubtful pollinate twice at an interval of two or three days.

The transference of the pollen may be made in several

ways. A common way is to pick the pollen-bearing flower and rub or shake it over the stigma. A more exact way is to pick off a pollen-shedding stamen with the forceps and rub it on the stigma. In some cases, where considerable work is to be done, the pollen is collected on dry paper or glass and transferred to the stigmas by means of a small brush. This is the method in the case of strawberries. For accurate work in such cases a new brush should be used for each kind of pollen. The essential thing is that you get a single pollen grain upon a receptive stigma, and that no foreign pollen has a chance to pollinate it. After pollination cover until the seeds begin to form.

When you pull out the stamens tag the flower, and on the tag make the following record: Male parent, female parent, when stamens were removed and date of pollination. This tag should remain till the seed or fruit is gathered. As this may be several months, when the record is complete rub the tag with vaseline or grease. Make your record with lead pencil. When the seed is thoroughly ripe carefully gather it and keep for future planting.

Seed formation is the last step in the first great phase of plant breeding. For the next phase, selection, no exact rules or directions can be given. Too much depends upon the individual worker and the end he has in view. A few general principles can be given:

First. See that the seed is thoroughly ripe, and in sowing observe the general rules as given in any flower catalogue or garden book.

Second. Give the young seedlings every condition possible for the best growth and carefully note their behavior. In this way you can often tell much as to their thriftiness, habit of growth, etc.

Third. Compare carefully the characters of the seedlings with those of the parents, as this will tell you which ones to select for further work. Sometimes one seedling will

be found that will differ markedly from all the others. Give such a seedling the best of care and attention, for it is in this way that some of our finest fruits and flowers have originated.

Fourth.-Keep accurate records and make your work of scientific value. The day is not far distant when we will ask about the parentage of our choice plants as we now do of our favorite animals.

Fifth.-Have some definite aim before you and work steadily toward it. Interesting side issues will continually rise to lead you away from your original plan, and only the exercise of watchful care will prevent you from trying to do so much that you will do nothing.

PROTECTIVE COLORING AMONG ANIMALS 1

Concealment, more or less complete, is useful to many animals, and absolutely essential to some. Those which have numerous enemies from which they cannot escape by rapidity of motion, find safety in concealment. Those which prey upon others must also be so constituted as not to alarm them by their presence or approach, or they would soon die of hunger. Now, it is remarkable in how many cases nature gives this boon to the animal, by coloring it with such tints as may best serve to enable it to escape from its enemies or to entrap its prey. Desert animals as a rule are desert-colored. The lion is a typical example of this, and must be almost invisible when crouched upon the sand or among desert rocks and stones. Antelopes are all more or less sandy-colored. The camel is preeminently so. The Egyptian cat and the Pampas cat are sandy or earth-colored. The Australian kangaroos are

1 From A. R. Wallace's Mimicry and Other Protective Resemblances Among Animals.

of the same tints, and the original color of the wild horse is supposed to have been a sandy or clay-color.

The desert birds are still more remarkably protected by their assimilative hues. The stone-chats, the larks, the quails, the goatsuckers and the grouse, which abound in the North African and Asiatic deserts, are all tinted and mottled so as to resemble with wonderful accuracy the average color and aspect of the soil in the district they inhabit. The Rev. H. Tristram, in his account of the ornithology of North Africa in the first volume of the "Ibis," says: "In the desert, where neither trees, brushwood, nor even undulation of the surface afford the slightest protection to its foes, a modification of color which shall be assimilated to that of the surrounding country is absolutely necessary. Hence without exception the upper plumage of every bird, whether lark, chat, sylvain, or sand-grouse, and also the fur of all the smaller mammals, and the skin of all the snakes and lizards, is of one uniform isabelline or sand color." After the testimony of so able an observer it is unnecessary to adduce further examples of the protective colors of desert animals.

Almost equally striking are the cases of arctic animals possessing the white color that best conceals them upon snowfields and icebergs. The polar bear is the only bear that is white, and it lives constantly among snow and ice. The arctic fox, the ermine and the alpine hare change to white in winter only, because in summer white would be more conspicuous than any other color, and therefore a danger rather than a protection; but the American polar hare, inhabiting regions of almost perpetual snow, is white all the year round. Other animals inhabiting the same northern regions do not, however, change color. The sable is a good example, for throughout the severity of a Siberian winter it retains its rich brown fur. But its habits are such that it does not need the protection of color, for it is