510 



JOURNAL OF HCRT1C0LTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



( Juae 28, 1873. 



the eiJe branches out of the stem, where they are most re- 

 quired. The pots in which they are planted are narrow and 

 shallow, holding a very small quantity of soil, and only suffi- 

 cient water is given to keep the plant alive. When the new 

 branches shoot they aro tied down in various ways, and twisted 

 into any design the gardener wishes. AU the strong ones are 

 cut off, and every means is adopted to discourage any young 

 shoots possessing any degree of vigour. Nature, as a conse- 

 quence, struggles against this mode of treatment for a time, 

 untU she quietly yields to the power of the gardener. Care is 

 taken to prevent the roots getting through the pot into the 

 ground, and also the supply of too much moisture, as, if it re- 

 ceived moisture, the plant would recover its original vigour, 

 and the endeavour of the gardener be frustrated. Plum trees 

 generally flower iiuickly by this treatment. I have in my draw- 

 ing-room two specimens of Orange trees, with at least forty 

 Oranges on, although neither of them are above 2 feet high. — 

 J. Tasker Fostek. — {Dii favour of the Jl'riter's fatlirr, Editor 

 of the Yorkshire Gazette.) 



EFFECT OF STRANGE POLLEN ON THE FKUIT. 



At a meeting of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 

 delphia, Mr. Thomas Meehau said he had the pleasure of 

 offering to the Academy some facts in regard to the fertilisation 

 of flowers, which confirmed the popular view that poUeu of 

 one variety bad an immediate influence on the structure of 

 the fruit of another variety as well as on the progeny, and 

 also, he thought, furnishing some entirely new facts in regard 

 to the ability of a seod-germ to receive impregnation from two 

 distinct sources. He had presented to the Academy last year 

 fruit gathered from a Pear tree, which, the members would 

 remember, had the regular seeds and carpels of a Pear, but the 

 flesh was fibrous and not granular as in the Pear, and the 

 external membrane or rind was that of an Apple. An Apple 

 tree had its branches interwoven with that of the Pear, and it 

 had been assumed that the poUen of the Apple had so influenced 

 the fruit of the Pear as to produce an immediate effect in the 

 way presented. 



But it had been urged in some quarters that this assumption 

 was open to objection. It was now fully proved that changes 

 of form occurred through what is now known as bud- variations, 

 and independent of any seminal action ; and it was contended 

 this might have been the case in the Pear-Apple referred to. 

 That there are these changes is well known. The Peach is 

 beUeved to be a development of this character from the Al- 

 mond ; at any rate the Nectarine is positively known to have 

 sprung from a bud, not from the seed, of a Peach. But in 

 case it might still be argued that in some way there was a latent 

 germinal influence in the cells of plants the results of cross- 

 breeding many generations past — in other words, that the 

 new appearance was simply a reversion and not a new crea- 

 tion, there had been some evidence in regard to the Sweet 

 Potato offered to the Academy a few years ago, proving bud- 

 variation quite independent of any supposed reversionary cha- 

 racter derived from seminal influence. There are no closely- 

 allied species to the Sweet Potatoes grown. Moreover, it does 

 not flower in these northern regions ; yet rootstocks had been 

 exhibited here with tubers of two varieties distinct in colour, 

 form, and other characters, growing on the same plant. 



But the gentleman who sent the Apples to the Academy, 

 Mr. Arnold, of Paris, Canada, determined to observe the effect 

 of cross-fertilisation on Indian Corn. He procured a very 

 peculiar variety, of which Mr. Meehan exhibited an ear, not 

 known in the vicinity — a brown variety, with a circular dent 

 on the apex, and raised one jilant from it. The first set of 

 flowers were permitted to be fertilised by their own pollen, in 

 order to test whether there was any reversionary tendency in 

 the plant, or the pollen of any other variety in the vicinity. 

 The ear now produced was the result, every grain being like 

 its parent. The Corn plant produces two ears on each stalk. 

 As soon as the " silk " (the pistils of this second year) appeared, 

 the pollen, in a " tassel," of the common yellow Flint Corn 

 was procured, set iu a bottle of water tied near the developing 

 ear, the plant's own tassel having been cut away some time 

 previous. After a short time this set of male flowers was re- 

 moved, and a panicle of male flowers from a white variety 

 was introduced to the same bottle, in order to aft'ord it the 

 opportunity of operating on the same female flowers. The 

 result was the ear now presented. The base of each grain 

 was of the j-ellow Flint Corn, but the upper half of the white 

 yariety. 



Those who opposed the facts of evolution by continually 

 cautioning its advocates against giving way to " imagination" 

 and " brilliant speculations," he thought might be profitably 

 benefited by their own suggestions. There was comparatively 

 little to sustain the idea of reversion but fancied resemblance 

 ^and this resemblance not the result of a comparison of two 

 facts side by side ; but a fact on one hand compared with 

 memory, and often the distant and vague memory of another 

 long in the past. At any rate, iu these experiments of Mr. 

 Arnold, there was the test applied to guard against any ob- 

 jection of either reversion or evolution, which, though not 

 absolutely perfect, was as near so as the vast mass of human 

 experience was ; and the result was, he thought, no escape from 

 the conclusion, not only that there was an immediate influence 

 on the seed and the whole fruit-structure by the application of 

 strange pollen, but the BtUl more important fact, hardly before 

 more than suspected, that one ovule could receive and be 

 affected by the pollen of two distinct parents, and this, too, 

 after some time had elapsed between the first and second 

 impregnation. 



ESCALLONIA MACKANTHA. 



This pretty but slow-growing evergreen, introduced by Messrs. 

 Veitch's ontei-prising collector, Mr. WiUiam Lobb, from the 

 Andes of Peru, is not half so much grown as it ought to be. 

 Few flowers are really more handsome, while its rich-coloured 



Escallonia macrontlia. 

 foliage of the deepest green looks at aU times clean, and in fact 

 newly varnished, exhibiting a shiny appearance. It is as densely 

 clothed with leaves as a Box tree, but they are almost as large 

 as those of the Beech. It may be urged against the plant, of 

 which the accompanying is a representation, that it is of slow 

 growth, but in a suitable position it is not so, and it well de- 

 serves one of the best of sites. We have here a plant of it 

 upwards of 10 feet high growing against a waU, and it would 

 have been higher if the wall had been so likewise ; but it is not 

 necessary to train it to a wall at all times, for it will succeed 

 V3ry well by the side of a mound, or in some other sheltered 

 position whore it can lie upon the ground. Although it well 

 deserves a wall, and thrives on one, I imagine that the habit 

 of the plant is to be nearer the surfaco, fnr we sometimes see 

 the upper part of a plant trained against a wall become sickly, 

 its foliage turning yellow, and portions dying off, while at the 

 bottom all is right. It will succeed, however, in the full sun, 

 and its neat spikes of scarlet flowers look well nestling amongst 

 foliage of the richest and densest character. Its flowers, also, 

 liki< those of the Magnolia, are spread over a much longer 

 period than in the case of most other evergreen trees and 

 shrubs, no that there is always something to admire. 



