Angost 1,1BBT. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



77 



the line, I plaint three, to as to fonn a triangle. These be- 

 come immonse stools in the first spring after planting, nnd 

 produce a crop equal to that of the second year. I never dig 

 amongst the plants, but in the autumn give a heavy mulching 

 of sound manure. In the spring I soak with liquid manure 

 when time will allow mc, and in the month of JIarch I never 

 fail to give a good top-dressing of common salt. This salting 

 in light, dry soils I believe to be highly beneficial. 



A great desideratum is a later kind than we have at present. 

 Than the Strawberry no fruit is more useful ; it is, therefore, 

 important to extend its season, and while most other fi-uits 

 have their late representatives, it remains comparatively sta- 

 tionary in this respect. Who will do honour to himself, and 

 benefit the public, by producing a good, full-flavoured variety, 

 naturally and decidedly late '.' — J. Wuioht, Gardttur to the lion. 

 A. Leslie MeloiUe. 



TESTIMONI^VL TO Jlli. BRUCE FIXDLAY. 

 It is a common saying amongst Englishmen, " They ma- 

 nage things better in France," but it is very doubtful whether 

 they manage their horticultural exhibitions so well in France 

 as we do in Ilngland. So sensible are the horticulturists of 

 Manchester of the great services rendered on a late occasion 

 by Mr. Findlay for the advancement of horticulture, that they 

 have set to work in good earnest for the purpose of giving him 

 a substantial testimonial. This is as it should be. I am heartily 

 glad to see that the patrons of horticulture in Manchester and 

 its neighbourhood know how to appreciate the labours of their 

 able Curator. It is not only the simple act of expressing their 

 pleasure and gratification for the services rendered with so 

 much care by Mr. l'"indlay, but I see in it the desire to give 

 that encouragement to horticultural taste, which will no doubt 

 be the means of very much improving the position of the 

 Manchester Botanical Society. A sum of more than £100 has 

 already been subscribed for the above purpose. I earnestly 

 hope the testimonial may be made worthy of Mr. Findlay's 

 acceptance. — J. Wills. 



UNFERTILE BLOSSOMS ON DAVARF PEAR 



TREES. 



By Dn. J. S. Hocgiitok. 



About one year ago I called the attention of the readers of 

 the " Monthly " to the unfertile character of the blossoms on 

 certain Pear trees, which annually exhibit a great profusion of 

 flowers, and yet produce hut little, if any, fruit. I inquired 

 what was the cause of the barrenness of the blossoms, and 

 snggested that the botanical structure of the flowers ought to 

 be examined by competent persons, in order to ascertain where- 

 in they are defective. The particular variety of the Pear to 

 which attention was called as unfruitful, even after being 

 covered with blossoms, was the Duchesse d'AngouKme on 

 the Quince stock. 



I am happy to say that the proposed investigation into the 

 botanical condition of the blossoms was made about the 1st 

 of May last, by several skilful botanists on my grounds, and 

 part of the report will now be presented to the public. 



At the time of the examination there were several thousand 

 Duchesse trees, eight, ten, and twelve years old, in full bloom, 

 in close proximity to other varieties which are not so unfertile. 

 The Duchesse trees were what gardeners call " one sheet of 

 bloom." The opinion of all present seemed to be, that so 

 mnch " bloom " must be very exhaustive. 



Mr. Thomas P. .lames, botanist of the Pennsylvania Horti- 

 cultural Society, examined the flowers very carefully with strong 

 lenses, and said they were (as compared with flowers of other 

 yarieties) very weak in their organisation, although apparently 

 perfectly hermaphrodite ; that the stigmas were evidently feeble, 

 the pollen limited in quantity, and the entire flowers in a low 

 state of vitality. 



The season was very unfavourable — cold and wet — but the 

 flowers examined had not, at that time, been seriously injured. 



A large quantity of the Duchesse blossoms were examined 

 very minutely by Professor Horatio C. Wood, Lecturer on 

 Botany in the University of Pennsylvania, under the micro- 

 scope, and I have much pleasure in appending his very acute 

 observations upon this deeply interesting subject. I trust that 

 pomologists will not let the matter stop here, but that they 

 will discuss the best method of avoiding an excess of weak 



flowers on fruit trees — or, rather, the best means of prodnoiog 

 a proper quantity of strong, well-organised, and well developed 

 fruitful blossoms. 



ppoFEPSon wood's KEronr. 



I have examined the blossoms of the Duchesse d'Angouleme 

 Pear. Tliey are certainly sexually perfect, with both the male 

 and female organs apparently normal to the naked eye; but 

 with the microscope I find both the gynoccium and androecium 

 (to use a medical phrase), suffering from general debility. Thus, 

 the anther-cells externally appear to be well developed, large 

 and finely foimed, but they contain scarcely one-third as mnch 

 pollen as similar organs of more fruitful varieties. It seemE 

 to me, further, that the pollen grains themselves are not so 

 well developed,. nor so crowded with granules or fovilla;. In 

 the same way the female organs are defectively organised. For 

 instance, the stigmas are not so large, and the little papilla;, 

 which secrete the so-called stigmalio fluid, are not nearly so 

 numerous nor pronounced as in the flowers of neighbouring 

 trees. 



In my own mind there is not much donht but that these 

 evident marks of the want of vigorous sexual development have 

 a deeper meaning than appears at first glance. What if there 

 are comparatively few pollen grains? Providence has so pro- 

 vided that the great mass of the pollen is superfluous, and 

 ordinarily is wasted. Surely the mere absence of a part of this 

 superfluity would not produce the barrenness you complain of. 

 It seems to me highly probable that the appreciable want of 

 strength is associated with a similar, but less ajiparent, de- 

 gradation as regards quality ; and there is a consequent want 

 cf power in the germinal matter both of the pollen and ovary, 

 which is the real cause of the bterility. If this explanation be 

 not the correct one, I know of no other. 



Having thus made a diagnosis in the ease, the next step is, 

 if possible, to discover the cause of the condition, so as to remedy 

 it, if practicable. Is it not probable that the source of the 

 trouble is to bo found in the excessive production of blossoms, 

 which this variety of Pear is notoriously addicted to ? Of all 

 the various life functions of the plant, the process of seed-pro- 

 ducing is, ]iay excdlencr., the exhaustive one. It is well known 

 how it often cripples, or even kills, a previously vigorous tree. 

 Further, the period during the reproductive process, the worst 

 for the plant, in which it eats up its life-capital fastest, is that 

 in which the blossoms are perfected, the pollen shed, and the 

 ovule impregnated. 



The reasons for this are obviously twofold. In the first 

 place, the production of very highly-vitalised matter rapidly 

 exhausts both the plant and the animal. Now it is at the 

 period alluded to that we have the greatest elaboration of costly 

 products in the flower. Not only are the ovaries, with their 

 contained ovules, and the anthers with their myriad pollen 

 grains, rapidly developing, but the sepals and petals, with 

 their numerous oil glands, are aiding in the prodigal waste of the 

 strength the plant, mayhap, has been years in obtaining. It 

 is readily seen that after impregnation, during the slow, gradual 

 production of the fruit and seed, wo have no such sudden biust 

 of life activity. 



Again, at this period there is. probably, the greatest loss of 

 nitrogenised principles that occur.^ during the life of the plant. 

 When the leaves are about to die their nitrogenised contente 

 return to the stem and roots, showing the great value to the 

 plant of these principles. The seeds, to be sure, contain moch 

 nitrogenised material ; but then there are comparatively few of 

 them perfected. Not so with the pollen. Yon can often see 

 it almost making little clouds in the air, or dusting thickly 

 the surface of ditches with its countless granules, and each of 

 these is literally gorged with the most highly vitalised nitro- 

 genous material the plant can produce. Surely, then, there is 

 evident cause for the exhaustion of flowering, especially when 

 we take into consideration the rapidity of the process as com- 

 pared with the length of time through which the seed is perfect- 

 ing. That the blossoming i.s very exhaustive, that in it are 

 expended most rapidly the life-forces of the plant, we have 

 numerous proofs. Thus the effects of profuse flowering on 

 very young trees is wtll known. 



Further, in the flower we have a rapid oxidisation of carbon, 

 or, in other words, a destruction of the bone and sinew of the 

 plant ; which is proven not merely by the evolution of carbonic 

 acid gas, and the taking-in of ox.vgen by the blossoms, but by 

 the heat given off from the flowers — an indisputable proof 

 that there is a more or less rapid burning up of carbon in the 

 flowers themselves, strengthened as it is by ihe intp'-psting re- 

 sults of tl^ experiments of Garreau, Yrolik, and De Yriese^ 



