16 PROOEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OP 



Mr. Thomas Meehan said he had the pleasure of offering to 

 the Acadom}' some facts in regard to the fertilization of flowers 

 which confirmed the popular view that pollen of one variet}- had 

 an immediate influence on the structure of the fruit of another 

 variety, as well as on the progeny; and also he thought furnishing 

 some entirel}' new facts in regard to the ability of a seed germ to 

 receive impregnation from two distinct sources. He liad pre- 

 sented to the Acadeni}' last year fruit gathered from a pear tree, 

 whicli the members would remember had the regular seeds and 

 carpels of a pear, but the flesh was fibrous and not granular 

 as in the pear, and the external membranes or rind was that of 

 an apple. An apple tree had its branches interwoven with that 

 of the pear, and it had been assumed that the pollen of the apple 

 had so influenced the fruit of the pear as to produce an immediate 

 effect in the way presented. 



But it had been urged in some quarters that this assumption 

 was open to objection. It was now fully proved that changes 

 of form occurred through what is now known as hud variations 

 and independent of any seminal action; and it was contended 

 this might have been the case in the pear-apple referred to. That 

 there are these changes is well known. The peach is believed to 

 be a development of this character from the almond at any rate 

 the nectarine is positively known to have sprung from a bud 

 not from a seed of the peach. But in case it might still be argued 

 that in some way there was a latent germinal influence in the cells 

 of plants the results of cross breeding many generations past ; in 

 other words, that the new appearance was sirapl}' a reversion and 

 not a new creation, there had been some evidence in regard to the 

 sweet potato oflfered to the Academy a few years ago, proving 

 bud variation quite independent of any supposed reversionary 

 character derived from seminal influence. Tiiere are no closely 

 allied species to the sweet potatoes grown. ]Moreover it does not 

 flower in these northern regions; yet root stocks had been exhib- 

 ited here with tubers of two varieties distinct in color, form, and 

 other characters growing on the same plant. 



But the gentleman who sent the apples to the Academy, Mr. 

 Arnold of Paris, Canada, determined to observe the effect of cross 

 fertilization on Indian corn. He procured a very peculiar variety 

 of which Mr. Meehan exhibited an ear, not known in tlie vicinity 

 a brown variety, with a circular dent at the apex and raised 

 one plant from it. The first set of flowers were permitted to be 

 fertilized by their own pollen in order to test whether there was 

 any reversionary tendency in the plant, or the pollen of an}' other 

 variety in the vicinit3^ The ear now produced was the result 

 every grain being like its parent. The corn plant produces two ears 

 on each stalk. As soon as the "silk" the pistils of this second 

 ear appeared, the pollen in a " tassel" of the common yellow 

 flint corn was procured, set in a bottle of water tied near the de- 



