1885.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



279 



plum fruit. We know of a tree of the American 

 wild plum, Prunus Americana, that never bears a 

 perfect fruit. They are nothing but hollow green 

 bladders, as in the cut annexed. 



As we understand, this result comes from the 

 attack of precisely the same fungus as produces 

 the curl in the leaf of the peach. It may be 

 hereditary in this pb.nt. for it always appears in 

 this tree, at least we have known it five years in 

 succession ; and we have little doubt if grafts 

 were taken from this tree to one free from the 

 disease, branches from these grafts would contrive 

 to produce plum bladders instead of plum fruit. 

 We could give other instances proving the cor- 

 rectness of Prof. Arthur's position, that the curl 

 fungus when it once gets possession of a tree, be- 

 comes an inseparable part of it through all subse- 

 quent propagation, though it may not develop 

 into active life unless the climatal conditions are 

 favorable. 



SCRAPS AND QUERIES. 



Variations among Plants. — " B.," Leesburg, 

 Fla., says : "I have found your articles on fertili- 

 zation very interesting. Since 1 read about the fig 

 in your magazine, [ thought that since those 

 fruits have been raised for so many years by 

 means other than seeds, perhaps they do not re- 

 quire fertilizing at all. For instance, the ordinary 

 banana down here, which I believe is properly the 

 plantain, seems to set all its fruit as far as the 

 plant is able to sustain them; but the cultivated 

 banana is seedless because it has been divided for 

 so long that the seeds have become abortive. I 

 think perhaps the varieties of oranges which have 

 abortive seeds may not require cross-fertilizing. 

 Don't you think that in the case of the self-ferti- 

 lized fig the fleshy part may form all right, but if 

 the seeds were sown they would prove deficient in 

 vitality ? Some numbers back you told me about 

 bud variation, and that you considered that from 

 a fertilizing point of view it made distinct individu- 

 als. That I can quite believe, but bud variation 

 was known in Darwin's time, as Rose Isabella 

 Sprunt and some chrysanthemums, were known in 

 his time; but then I suppose Darwin considered 

 floriculture a morbid taste for monstrosities and 

 perhaps overlooked it. I am afraid I am rather 

 one of those persons who " want to know you 

 know;" but don't you think the case where two 

 black grapes were crossed and produced a white 

 one, one of their ancestors was a white one, just as 

 in the case in human beings where some one has 



a faint "dash of de tar brush" one of their 

 children may have the features of a negro? or do 

 you think that in some cases by crossing two 

 plants much alike you might get the opposite ? for 

 I know that canary breeders never pair two 

 crested ones because they are apt to turn out bald." 



[Any questions from correspondents are welcome, 

 as none of us know all we want to learn, and even 

 the Editor is indebted to correspondents for sug- 

 gestions leading to investigations that might not 

 otherwise be undertaken. In the present case it 

 may be remarked that there is no necessity for 

 looking back to ancestry to account for the ap- 

 pearance of variations. If there were but one or 

 a single pair of parents in each case, the variations 

 we see must be wholly new and not reversions. If 

 there were originally but one apple, some of the forms 

 or colors that have since been introduced must be 

 wholly new creations. So with seedless fruits. 

 There are seedless apples, pears, persimmons and 

 other fruits well-known to have sprung at once 

 into existence, and with no relation to continual 

 propagation as in the case of the banana. 



In the case of the fig, we are not so sure that the 

 seeds are as defective as they are generally sup- 

 posed to be. In these matters very few people ex- 

 amine for themselves. Even with a fig before 

 them it is more than likely it would not be touched, 

 but some book be looked up to find out what some- 

 body said ages ago. We have now in sight of our 

 window a young fig tree that came up in some 

 kitchen waste and could only have sprung from 

 seed of a dried fig. It is not liiv-ely this was the 

 only perfect seed. It is a well-known axiom in 

 natural seed sowing that there are hundreds of per- 

 fect seeds produced for every one that in the 

 struggle for life ever gets to be a plant. — Ed. G. M.] 



Odor in Cereus grandiflorus. — "A. G. :" 

 We are indebted to our valued correspondent for 

 the following note: "The Editor of Gardeners' 

 Monthly, on p. 235, has forgotten the old and' 

 long-recorded fact that the fragrance of Cereus 

 grandiflorus is intermittent — comes as it were in 

 puffs, at intervals." 



Tobacco Changing to Petunias. — "C. H.," 

 Pembroke, Genesee Co. ,N.Y., writes: " I sowed this 

 spring on a hot-bed three varieties of tobacco — 

 Conn. Seed Leaf, Hayne's and Wilson. It came 

 up well, and what seems strange to me, there is 

 not one plant of tobacco in the lot. They are all 

 petunias and now in bloom. Of the white variety 

 there can be no mistake about the seed, as I grew 

 and saved the seed myself. Can you account for 



