JO March, 1909.] Bud-Variation in Corinth Cur rant Vine. 145 



BUD-VARIATION IN CORINTH CURRANT VINE. 



No. I. 



D. McAlpinc, Vegetable Pathologist. 



About the middle of January, the Horticultural Editor of the Mildura 

 Cultivator sent me a specimen which he described as " a freak of nature, 

 or a remarkable case of cross-fertilization, in the shape of a bunch of 

 grapes, half of which are Corinth currants and half Muscat Gordo 

 Blanco. One grape is half of each. It was taken from a currant vine, on 

 which all the other fruit is normal." Photograph No. i gives a good 

 representation of this specimen. Towards the foot of the stalk are the 

 ordinary seedless currants, then light and dark variations, alx)Ut double 

 the size, and the rest consist of round Muscat-like grapes, with a single 

 specimen about the centre, which is a piebald, or half-and-half. Both the 

 piebald and the large Corinth contained a single seed each, and the large 

 round ]\Iuscat-like berries contained several seeds each, which have been 

 preserved for future piantnig. 



On further inquiry 1 found that the same vine bore two more abnormal 

 bunches, although, at hrst, not observed. One, a so-called tendril branch, 

 bearing about eighteen currants and six of the round Muscats ; and the 

 other, a ver\ fine one, shown in Photograph No. 2. This consisted of 

 54 ordinary seedless currants, two piebald, or half-and-half, and 38 of 

 the round Muscats, together with a large currant, about double the size 

 of the normal, and containing one seed. 



It appears that, in the Mildura district, the Corinth vine is addicted 

 to such freaks, although not often to the extent of bearing three abnormal 

 bunches on different parts of the same vine, and they are not unknown 

 in some Goulburn Valley vineyards. But, apparently, no one has 

 hitherto followed up and tried to account for this remarkable phenomenon, 

 which is usually dismissed as being merely a " freak " or a " sport," 

 and, therefore, not capable of any reasonable explanation. 



On submitting the specimens to Mr. F. de Castella, he was not aware 

 of ever having met with anything exactly similar, even although he has 

 seen the vine growing in many lands, and Darwin, in his work on The 

 Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, gives several cases 

 of variation in the fruit of the grape, but none so striking as this. He 

 quotes Count Odart's description of a variety which often bears, on the 

 same stalk, small, round and large oblong berries ; though the shape of 

 the berry is generally a fixed character. He also mentions the case of the 

 Muscat de Frontignan, in which, on the same foot-stalk, the lower berries 

 " were well-coloured black Frontignans ; those next the stalk were white, 

 with the exception of one black and one streaked berry," and altogether 

 there were fifteen black and twelve white berries on the same stalk. But 

 in none of these instances is there anything approaching the production of 

 an ordinary seedless currant, a piebald, and a round Muscat berry, by a 

 Corinth currant vine. 



I regard this as an extreme case of bud-variation, as opposed to what 

 might be called seed-variation, or the variation of a plant, as a whole, and 

 not of a part such as a bud. It has been suggested that the variation might 

 be due to cross-fertilization, but it is certainly not a case of crossing, for, 

 €!ven granting that a cross had taken place this season between the Corinth 

 and the Muscat, it would only have affected the seed inside, and not the 



