HORTTCULTUEE. 843 



altogether. Calcium oxalate is much more abundant in pineapple plants grow- 

 ing on manganiferous soils. The ash of such plants also contains considerably 

 more lime and less phosphorus pentoxid and magnesia than when grown on 

 normal soils. 



The stem of pineapples serves as a repository for starch and contains large 

 amounts of this substance. The leaves, in common with other members of 

 Bromeliaceae, contain several rows of palisade cells which contain nothing but 

 cell sap, and the chlorophyll is confined to the spongy parenchyma in the lower 

 three-fifths of the leaf. The fruit contains only faint traces of starch during 

 early growth and none when it reaches maturity. During the growth of the 

 fruit relatively small amounts of sugars are stored in it, but there is a rapid 

 accumulation of sugars within the short period of normal ripening. The sugars 

 of the fruit are derived from the starch previously stored in the stalk, hence 

 pineapples gathered green do not develop a normal sugar content in subsequent 

 ripening. 



The authors found that the pineapple Is exceedingly sensitive to adverse phys- 

 ical and chemical conditions in the soil. They suggest that other crops less 

 sensitive to manganese than pineapples be grown on highly manganiferous 

 soils. Thus far the best method of handling i)ineapples on manganiferous soils 

 consists in applying soluble phosphates and planting old stumps instead of 

 suckers. 



The thirty years' record of a grass orchard, C. H. Hooper {Jour. Bd. Agr. 

 [London^, 19 {1912), No. 7, pp. 541-5Jf5). — A summarized account extending 

 over 30 years is given of a small orchard, chiefly of cherries, showing actual 

 returns and the method of cultivation adopted during that period. 



An experiment in breeding apples, U. P. Hedrick and R. Wellington 

 {Neio York State Sta. Bui. 3J0, pp. 1J,1-1S6, pis. 18).— An experiment in breed- 

 ing apples along Mendelian lines is here reported. The material for this w^ork 

 was derived from 148 crosses made in lSf)8 and 1899. The crosses were studied 

 from both grafts and seedlings. Various numbers of the following crosses 

 fruited: Ben Davis XEsopus, Green Newtown, Jonathan, Mcintosh, and Mother; 

 EsppusXBen Davis and Jonathan; Mcintosh X Lawyer ; and Ralls, Rome, and 

 Sutton X Northern Spy. A tabulated description of the crosses shows the 

 size and shape of tree, yield in 1911, and the size, shape, color, flavor, and 

 season of fruit, together with comparative notes. The transmission of char- 

 acters among the different crosses is discussed and descriptions are given 

 of a number of promising varieties secured from the crosses and named after 

 counties in the State. 



The authors find that these crosses strikingly contradict the idea that seed- 

 ling apples revert to the wild prototype. The stimulus of hybridity was very 

 marked in the vigor of the crosses under consideration, and the behavior of 

 some of the crosses strongly suggests that apples may be prepotent in one or 

 more of their characters. It is concluded that although the inheritance of skin 

 color, flesh color, size, and shape is more or less hypothetical, acidity is 

 undoubtedly inherited as a Mendelian character. 



In regard to color of skin the fruits in which yellow predominates over red 

 seem to be in a heterozygous condition for yellow and red. Fruits in which 

 red predominates are either homozygous or heterozygous, and the pure yellows 

 are homozygous. No conclusive data were secured as to color of flesh, al- 

 though crosses of Ben Davis and of Mcintosh appear to carry yellow and 

 white, the white being recessive. 



Establishing laws of inheritance of size and shape in apples promises to be a 

 difficult task, since these characters are subject to so many external condi- 

 tions. The data at hand, however, indicate that size and shape are inherited 



