248 THK JOUKNAL OF BOTANY 



of the mosfc fascinating of the day, but it may, perhaps, have the 

 largest importance to humanity. The work at Merton Park is 

 not scientific, in the sense that it has no immediate apphcation to 

 practical affairs. 



When we interpret it into an effort to produce a truly disease- 

 resisting strain of potatoes, to grow flax a foot or two taller than 

 it has been grown before, and investigate the farmer's curse of 

 thrips, to increase the fertility of fruit trees, to turn out beautiful 

 new varieties of well-known flowering plants, then the work 

 seems practical enough. The work is young yet ; but every step 

 gained, almost every series of experiments, adds some con- 

 tribution, if only a negative one, to our economic knowledge. It 

 is a pity that John Innes, who left his bequest for the foundation 

 of a horticultural institution (and possibly had never heard the name 

 of Mendel), cannot see to what excellent use his legacy is being put. 



If you go into the fruit house at Merton Park you will find it 

 full of fruit trees — apple, plum, and cherry — from three to five 

 feet high, growing in pots. Certain kinds of these trees have 

 been known to be self- sterile — that is to say, that they cannot be 

 fertilized with their own pollen but must be fertilized with that 

 from other varieties. Also it has now been discovered that some 

 distinct varieties are not capable of inter-fertilization. It is 

 evidently of the first importance to fruit growers to know what 

 varieties when crossed produce the best results. 



You will see here a tree, perhaps a cherry, which a month or 

 two ago was a mass of blossom. There is a photograph to show 

 what it looked like when every branch was covered equally 

 densely with flowers. Now out of seven or eight branches five 

 or six, it may be, are absolutely devoid of fruit. Two branches 

 only are weighed down with clusters of ripe cherries. When the 

 tree was in blossom the flowers on each several branch were 

 carefully dusted with pollen from some other variety of cherry. 

 The result shows which crosses were fertile and which were not. 

 The method is not new ; it has been developed in the United 

 States, but the results obtained here are and will be full of 

 interest to British fruit-growers. 



In the flower houses sex investigations are being carried on by 

 the crossings of begonias, calceolarias, nasturtiums, primulas, 

 campanulas, and other flowering plants, and in calceolarias, 

 especially, some quite new combinations of form and colour have 

 been developed. Most of these are the results of experiments 

 with C. cana, an unattractive, primitive-looking thing with woolly 

 leaves which only a botanist would guess to be a calceolaria. So 

 far as is known, G. cana has not heretofore been used in crossing ; 

 but some of the hybrids from it are of great beauty, tall branching 

 plants of the " tree" type, of novel shades of mauve and lavender 

 and other curious tints. 



From the experiments with nasturtiums, again, some con- 

 spicuously handsome double flowers have been produced ; one 

 especially of a superb crimson-scarlet, and another almost equally 

 handsome, banded with scarlet and yellow. In crossing the 



