"No seed ever attains the power of germinating, unless the pollen from the stamens in the same, or some nearly allied flower, has reached and impregnated its pistils.

"In favourable seasons, when genial warmth and gentle winds prevail, impregnation is readily effected by the plant's own provision. The pollen is never shed from the anther of the stamen, until the stigma of the pistil is fully developed, and this soon withers after the contact.

"Their all-provident Creator has invariably arranged efficient assistance. The agents usually called in are insects; these, in their search after honey and wax, visit the inmost recesses of flowers, and bear from the anthers to the stigma, and from flower to flower, the fecundating dust. Here, too, I may remark upon another instance of that Providence which makes all things fitting and appropriate; for those who have made the bee their study, relate that though this insect does not confine itself to one species of flower, yet it restricts its visits during each ramble to that kind which it first visits. How this facilitates impregnation is obvious, when it is remembered that no flower can be fecundated but with pollen from a kindred species.

"This efficient agency of insects suggested, that in hothouses, from whence they are almost totally excluded, other artificial means might be adopted with success to render flowers fertile that had hitherto failed in producing seed. Thus the gardener always finds the advantage of using the camel hair pencil to apply pollen to the stigmas of his forced melons, cucumbers, cherries, and peaches." - Principles of Garden-ing. See Hybridizing.