HOKTICULTURE. 569 



Cucumbers (pp. 396-398). — The third generation of crossed cucumbers was grown 

 in 1901. The original cross was White Spine npon White Pearl. The 1901 crop was 

 not uniform, the fruit varying exceedingly in color, size, and forin. One of the 

 main jiurposes of the original cross was to remove the spines from the fruit. This 

 was accomplished on some fruits, while others were remarkably rough. A plate is 

 given showing 17 fruits, all differing from one another. 



E(j(jpl(mt (pp. 398-400). — In 1900 the New York Improved Spineless eggplant was 

 crossed upon Long Purple. Plants obtained from the seed of this cross were grown 

 in 1901. They were remarkaljly vigorous. The fruits were of good color, form, and 

 size, and especially well suited for slicing. The quality was excellent. The fruits 

 matured nearly a month earlier than the New York Improved, and (3 weeks in 

 advance of Long Purple. This cross is considered very promising. 



Sweet corn (pp. 400-408). — In the experiments with sweet corn the pink, white, 

 and black grains obtained in crossing Egyptian, a white variety, with Black Mexican 

 have been ])lanted. The resulting ears have had mixed grains in every instance, 

 but when jiink grains were planted they constituted the largest percentage of the 

 grain on the resulting ears; likewise black grains predominated on the ears when 

 black grains were planted, and white grains when white seed were planted. It was 

 observed in these experiments that the largest number of 8-rowed and 12-rowed ears 

 were obtained from 10-rowed seed, 10-rowed ears from 8-rowed seed, and ears having 

 more than 10 rows from seed having from 12 to 14 rows. Nothing was gained by 

 starting corn indoors and setting it in the field when the plants were 4 weeks old. 

 When pollen was prevented from reaching the silks of the ears the silks grew to an 

 unusually large size and remained green 2 or 3 times longer than the normal period. 

 Good ears were obtained by inbreeding, but the corn thus treated matured much 

 less rapidly than corn grown in an open field. The inbred corn reproduced the 

 peculiarities of the stock. 



In another experiment corn was l)red with the object of increasing its jirolificness. 

 Seven ears produced on 3 stalks were taken for seed. From this seed 144 stalks were 

 giown. Of these 44 bore large single ears, 83 bore 2 marketable ears each, and 17 

 bore 3 or more ears each. It is stated that the number of stalks bearing 2 and 3 ears 

 each were much larger in this plat of selected corn than in other plats of corn in 

 which the seed was not selected with regard to prolificness. 



Some further notes are given upon salsify hybrids, j^articularly as regards the 

 color of the flowers produced. Nothing definite as regards the edibleness of the 

 roots obtained is reported. Other crosses mentioned are those of 2 species of 

 ^lartynia, an unsuccessful cross of the trumpet creeper upon Martynia, a successful 

 cross of the ordinary field flax ( Limtvi usitat.issimum) with the ornamental species 

 (L. (jrandijlormn f) . 



Plant breeding and improvement in our experiment stations, B. D. Hal- 

 STED {New Jersey Stas. Rpt. 1901, pp. 411-419). — A brief review is given of the plant- 

 breeding work conducted at each of the experiment stations \\\) to the present time. 



Apparent exceptions to the Mendel law of dissociation in hybrids, C. Cor- 

 RjJNS [Ber. Deut. But. GeselL, SO {190-2), No. 3, pp. 159-172) .—The author presents 

 some experimental data showing that Mendel's law does not appear to hold lietween 

 crosses of black sugar corn {Zea mays coeruleodulcis) and pop corn [Z. mays 

 leucoceras). 



Experiments with salad plants, B. D. Halsted (Neiv Jersey Stas. Tipt. 1901, 

 p. 419). — Swiss chard was sown May 13 and again July 28. Both lots grew well, but 

 the early chard was somewhat affected with leaf blight while that sown later was 

 nearly free. This result is in accord with that of earlier work of the station, which 

 indicates that the blight does not flourish on late-sown chard. Plants of Swiss 

 chard removed to the greenhouse in the autumn furnished leaf stalks through the 

 winter and were again planted out in the spring, where they made a fine early 



