FLOWERING BUDS FORMED IN LATE SUMMER. 73 



or in the spring, no new flowering buds would be formed to replace 

 those removed by the pruning. 



The time of laying down flowering buds seems to be correlated with 

 the length of the growing season. About Washington Vaccinium 

 atrococcum begins to form its flowering buds in the latter part of Au- 

 gust, one to two months after its berries are matured. In Vaccinium 

 pallidum^ on the high mountain summits of North Carolina, where 

 the growing season is short, the transformation of leaf buds into 

 flowering buds begins as early as the last week in July while some 

 of the berries are still green. In the cultivated plants at Washing- 

 ton the formation of flowering buds did not begin in 1009 until Sep- 

 tember, and it continued on some plants until cold weather stopped 

 their growth. 



The laying down of flowering buds appears to be a phenomenon 

 local within the twig. Cuttings of the swamp blueberry made in 

 New Hampshire on July 9, 1909, transformed their leaf buds into 

 flowering buds in the cutting bed after reaching Washington, as 

 shown in Plate X, figure 2, but whether the transformation in this? 

 case was made before or after the cutting had rooted was not observed. 

 In another case, how^ever, that of cuttings made in New Hampshire 

 September 11, 1909, from long late shoots bearing only leaf buds, 

 the transformation into flowering buds began to occur in the cutting 

 bed October 12 and was completed before any roots had formed. 

 (See PL X. fig. 3.) 



(31) At the end of their first year seventy per cent of the blueberry 

 plants had laid down flowering bxtds for the next spring's blossomino. 



At the end of the season of 1909, 177, or 70 per cent, of the 250 

 seedlings of 1908 that had been put in 6-inch pots had developed 

 flowering buds. In Plate XI is shown one of these seedlings, pho- 

 tograj^hed on November 2, 1909, which had laid down 42 flowering 

 buds. One plant produced 58 flowering buds. At the end of the 

 preceding season, 1908, at least 25 per cent of the seedlings of 1907 

 that were still kept in pots had produced flowering buds. Therefore, 

 notwithstanding the statements of earlier experimenters that the 

 seedlings of this species do not fruit until they are several years 

 old (p. 08), it is regarded as established that under the culture system 

 w^orked out by these experiments a substantial percentage wnll \Q.y 

 down flowering buds at the end of the first year and will bear fruit 

 the second year. 



Attention has already been called (p. G7) to the occasional laying 

 down of flowering buds when the seedlings were only 7 months old^ 

 followed rarely by flowering and fruiting at the age of less than 

 a year. 



193 



