THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 13 



duction can be increased with a minimum amount of effort 



Cliard or Swiss chard has been worked with and the var- 

 ieties successful for blanching have been developed. Canners in 

 Oregon are experimenting with a chard from which 4^ to 5 

 pounds can be picked at a time from one plant. Strains of 

 chickory have been bred by means of selection which make 

 greater production necessary to fill all the possibilities. There 

 is Witloof Chicory or Frencli Endive for blanching or salad 

 purposes. There is the Large Coffee-Rooted and then the 

 Gregory, etc., for "greens." 



American breeders of cucumber seed have done much to 

 increase the yield of cucumbers. For this purpose English and 

 American types have been crossed, giving a type combining 

 the good points of both. The variety Abundance is an example 

 of this cross-pollination. Under glass and with intensive cul- 

 tivation one can produce 36 dozen cucumbers to 100 sc^uare 

 feet. In the west this is increased to 46 dozen to 100 square 

 feet. 



Burbank and others have experimented with the common 

 dandelion and, by selection, the American Improved, Large, 

 and the Thick-leaved French varieties have been bred. These 

 varieties are much more palatable than the wild and may be 

 blanched to increase their good qualities. Bailey worked with 

 eggplant unsuccessfully. Self-pollinated seeds gave variable 

 offspring and none reproduced the parent. Eggplants present 

 a complex breeding problem because there is surface color and 

 flesh color both to consider. The Department of Vegetable 

 Gardening at Cornell was successful in grafting tomato scion 

 on eggplant stock in 1915, but nothing extraordinary hap- 

 pened. The tomato bore its fruit serenely and the eggplant 

 flowered but bore no fruit. The tomato plants were stolen 

 when immature. 



Endive is a native of East India. It endures summer 



