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and accounts for the sudden appearance of certain plants at places where it would otherwise be very difficult to explain their origin. In this way possibly in some cases the mysterious appearance of cheat or chem may be accounted for.

Most of the grasses are [Monoecious] [hermaphrodites] or have their stamens & pistils, in the same [plant] flowers, like the wheat, oats, &c: but many of them, as Indian corn, wild rice &c are [Dioecious] Monoecious or have these organs on separate flowers on different parts of the plant. Corn it will be remembered has the stamens situated at the summit of the culm, hence the pollen has a specific gravity greater than the air so that it falls upon the stigma known to farmers as the "silk"; But the wild rice has the stamens below, and the pollen grass are lighter than the air and consequently rises like so many little balloons until they meet the stigma which is turned downwards as if purposely to catch these grains!

The artificial hybridizing of plants consists in applying the pollen of one plant to the stigma of another, and carefully excluding all contact with the pollen of the plant experimented upon. In the case of Indian corn this might easily be done by planting rows of two kinds, and carefully destroying the [tastles?] of one of the kinds before they are fully matured.-