4 The Journal 
ancestry, class three should not be 
recognized. At times, even with breed- 
ing records, it would be difficult to deter- 
mine whether a variation should be 
classed as a segregation or a true 
mutation; whether, in other words, the 
new or apparently new character be- 
came expressed through the removal of 
influences which suppressed or masked 
it, or actually arose anew. 
INFLUENCE OF LOCAL CONDITIONS 
As stated previously, fluctuating var- 
iation is by far the most common of all 
forms of variability. Such variation 
is greatly influenced by, and largely 
may be due to, environment in its 
broader sense. The production of in- 
ferior or superior fruit, whether it be 
size, color, or even quantity, may be 
the result of purely local conditions. 
A few instances of this type of varia- 
tion and experiences with it are of 
interest. 
Hedrick, in his discussion of pedi- 
greed nursery stock, has pointed out 
the fact that fluctuations are not 
stable and, when environmental con- 
ditions are changed, characteristics 
change with them; and, in citing an 
example, states that “sixty Rome 
trees all propagated from buds from 
one branch show quite as much varia- 
tion as could be found in an orchard of 
Romes propagated indiscriminately and 
growing under similar conditions ”’ With 
nothing more than change of the name 
of the plant concerned, his statement 
fuily summarizes a number of similar 
experiments. 
An interesting example of range of 
fluctuation in size of fruit is furnished 
by a well-regulated Spitzenberg orchard 
which came under my _ observation. 
Generally the trees throughout the 
orchard produced average-sized fruits. 
Certain trees, however, consistently 
produced small, ill-shaped, inferior ap- 
ples. Various treatments were recom- 
mended and tried but to no avail. 
Finally it was concluded that the trees 
were of an inferior strain and regrafting 
to a superior sort was recommended as 
the only remedy. Accordingly certain 
of the small fruited trees were severely 
cut back in the spring and top-worked, 
of Heredity 
slightly less than one-half the number of 
branches being left so as not to de- 
stroy completely the balance of the tree. 
In the fall these remaining branches 
matured the finest fruits in the entire 
orchard; the companion trees which had 
not been so severely handled produced 
small fruit as usual. Apparently there 
was nothing in the idea of an inferior 
strain so far as these trees were con- 
cerned. 
Selection for improvement in apples 
has been made on the basis of the color 
of the fruits—one of the most elusive of 
characters. In this regard, the follow- 
ing statement, which I made some time 
ago, since has been abundantly con- 
firmed: 
The red in Shiawassee, McIntosh and 
Jonathan is composed of at least two reds, 
the one light and carrying with it the 
factor for striping, the other dark and 
associated with the factor for solid color. 
Now if these apples are grown under poor 
light conditions, they are almost without 
exception light red and striped, while in 
full sunlight the deep red factor further 
manifests itself and the fruit becomes self- 
colored dark red, though on close inspec- 
tion the stripes are evident beneath the 
solid color. ‘This is not a case of segrega- 
tion; both characters are present, the 
one being simply overlaid by the other. | 
If then cions are taken from branches 
bearing superiorly colored fruit, due to 
purely local conditions, such as lght, 
air, or moisture, the trees resulting 
from them when subjected to another 
environment might or might not prove 
superior, depending upon whether the 
new conditions were favorable to the 
development of the one set of colors 
or another. As will be brought out 
subsequently, however, certain color 
changes, the result of segregation are 
transmissible. 
An experiment by Howard and Whit- 
ten, to determine whether the tendency 
toward greater yield is transmissible, is 
reported as follows: 
Three crops of apples have thus far 
been harvested from trees, part of which 
were grown from cions selected from 
high-producing parents and part from 
trees of low-producing parents. There 
was practically as much variation in yield, 
size, and color of fruit between trees ‘from 
the same parent as there was between trees 
of different parentage. Bud selection from 
high-producing and from low-producing 
