404: Kepokt of tue Department of Horticulture of the 



breadfruit, date, persimmon, fig, grape, lemon, medlar, mulberry, 

 opuntia, orange, peach, pear, pineapple, pistacio, plum, pome- 

 granate, and strawberry. In several of these fruits seedlessness 

 is a commercial asset. A variety of apples without seeds, 

 especially if it were coreless as well, attractive in appearance and 

 of high quality, would all but revolutionize apple-growing. Here, 

 then, is a chance for the plant-breeder to exercise his art. 



Seedlessness in the fruits named, — many other illustrations 

 might be given from vegetable, flower and field crops, — establishes 

 the fact that the production of seed is not necessary for the health 

 and vigor of plants ; and in plants propagated vegetatively seeds 

 are useless, cumbersome organs. The sooner we get rid of seeds 

 and cores in apples the better ; and given time and patience it can 

 be done, — indeed, has been done, but the barrenness did not 

 occur in conjunction with other desirable qualities. 



What means may the fruit-grower employ to obtain seedless 

 apples ? This is the important question. We might breed 

 seedless apples more intelligently if we knew precisely what 

 causes the suppression of seeds. Seedless apples seem to be pro- 

 duced under several conditions. Thus, this fruit is reported to be 

 usually seedless when grown in semi-tropic countries and under 

 other conditions which cause very luxuriant growth. This antago- 

 nism between growth and seed-production is not, however, capable 

 of being transmitted either through seeds or buds. Hybridization 

 is a well-known agent in diminishing the number, size and fertility 

 of seeds in plants when the cross is a violent one or between distinct 

 species. But crossing varieties of apples, so far as the experience 

 at this Station goes or the scant and fragmentary accounts in litera- 

 ture show, has little effect on seed-bearing. Seedless apples and 

 pears have been produced by Ewert, a German, at will, by protect- 

 ing the stigmas from pollen. But none nor all of these causes act- 

 ing alone or in combination for a short period nor accumulatively 

 over a long one seem to account satisfactorily for seedless fruits. 



Seedless varieties usually bear abnormal flowers, these either 

 lacking sexual organs or petals or both. So marked are these 

 monstrosities that the varieties are usually said to be " bloomless " 



