148 Journal of Agriculture. [10 March, 1909. 



Several colour variations of well-known French wine varieties have 

 originated in this way, but such a complete and radical change as the 

 one under notice has not, to my knowledge, been so far placed on record. 



Two varieties of vine are grown for the production of currants in Vic- 

 toria, viz., the Zante and the Corinth. The former, owing to its better- 

 filled bunches, has almost entirely displaced the latter, which differs 

 chiefly from the Zante by the Muscat flavour of its fruit. Like the Zante, 

 its berries are small and seedless, though an odd large berry, containing 

 pips, occasionally makes its appearance. 



The number of regularly seedless vines is not large ; the two varieties 

 referred to above, and the Sultana (including the closely allied TFTomp- 

 son's seedless) are the only sorts cultivated on a commercial scale in 

 Victoria. The physiological laws governing the development of seedless 

 fruit have not received the attention such an interesting subject would 

 seem to merit. 



According to Professor Muller Thurgau, the size of the berry is 

 directly influenced by the development of the seed it contains. Jurie 

 looks upon these seedless varieties as cases of the partial non-setting of the 

 fruit known in French under the name of Millermid — a faulty condition 

 in the case of vines which normally bear fruit containing pips. 



The Zante, the Corinth, and the Sultana appear to be examples of 

 Miller and (a word which has no English equivalent) affecting every berry 

 of the bunch ; a condition probably intensified and fixed by artificial 

 selection extending over a long period, for these varieties have been cul- 

 tivated since early times in oriental countries. Miller and would thus, in 

 the case of these seedless varieties, have become their normal condition. 

 Several usually seed-bearing varieties, which are widely cultivated, present 

 the phenomenon of Millcrand ; for example, the Gordo Blanco and the 

 Bicane (known locally as Raisin des Dames). In seasons unfavorable 

 to the setting of the fruit, one finds bunches composed of a few normal, 

 seed-containing berries, mixed with small seedless ones. In the case of 

 the Gordo Blanco, it is these faultv berries, separated after drying, by 

 means of riddles, which constitute the seedless muscatels of commerce. 



In an article dealing with the Sultanina, the name by which the 

 Sultana is usually known in France, in Rcvitc de Viticulture of 5th Nov., 

 1898, M. J. M. Guillon writes as follows, concerning the absence of 

 seeds: — " As authors do not agree as to the causes to wh'ch the absence 

 of pips in the Sultanina and Corinth are to be attributed, I sought, dur- 

 ing mv stay in Greece, for some varieties of these ' Cepages ' bearing 

 pips. I did not find any. If the Sultanina were a native of Greece, one 

 might conclude that this anomalv is not the result of an accident of vege- 

 tation (bud-variation), perpetuated by cutting propagation, but really that 

 of the constitution of the sexual organs of the flower which are sterile." 



In the case of the Corinth, the reversion of an occasional berry to 

 what is probably the normal state, that is, containing pi])s, is not un- 

 common, but the appearance, in a bunch, of a large proportion of berries, 

 differing entirelv as regards size, colour, and texture of skin, from even 

 the seed-containing lierries occasionally to be found, is a truly extra- 

 ordinary freak, and one I should have experienced difficulty in crediting 

 had I not [personal I v examined the bunches, photographs of which are re- 

 produced. 



The case under observation appears to be one of bud-variation ; pos- 

 sibl\ a reversion to the type of one of the sexual parents of the original 



