HOKTIOULTUKAL DIVISION, 



445 



fruits produced by these eight samples were of an indiffepent and 

 ill-defined color, and were utterly wortMess for market. In pro- 

 ductiveness, the purple-herbage plants were ahead of the green 

 ones, although the green parent — Round White — is more pro- 

 ductive than the Black Pekin. Of the 729 plants which gave siz- 

 able fruits before frost, 454 were purple and 275 green. In habit, 

 the A crosses were also very various. The Round Wliite seemed 

 to exert a great influence upon the stature of the plants, but the 

 purple color of Black Pekin appeared to be more potent than the 

 green of the other. 



Series B came from a cross of Giant Round Purple and White 

 Chinese. The fonner has purple herbage and a very large purple 



Extent of variation in "B" crosses. (1890.) 



fruit, while the latter has green herbage and a long club-shaped 

 white fruit. So far as beauty of form and color is concerned, 

 this series was by far the most promising of the three crosses. 

 The plants in this series, as in the former, were as a rule inter- 

 mediate between the parents. Much of the vigor of the pistillate 

 parent was transmitted to the offspring, but the leaves were 

 smaller and less distinctly lobed. 



In form the fruits, as a rule, resembled the staminate parent — 

 White Chinese, but they were of greater diameter. The color 

 at edible maturity was rich dark purple, with lighter apex. When 

 fully mature — that is, when left for the seed to ripen, — the light 



