Shamel: An Orange Bud Variation 



177 



inferior commercial value but intensely 

 interesting from the standpoint of 

 showing the occurrence of striking 

 variations in citrus varieties and the 

 possibility of isolating and propagating 

 them through bud selection. 



Some authors (see discussion of bud 

 variation in Darwin's "Variation of 

 Animals and Plants under Domestica- 

 tion") believe that variegations of 

 foliage, such as that shown in the photo- 

 graph, are the result of disease. They 

 also seem to believe that when a varie- 

 gated bud is inserted in a normal stock 

 it will inoculate the stock with the 

 disease, which the}^ claim causes the 

 variegation, so that branches of the 

 stock other than those grown from the 

 variegated buds will show variegation. 



I am ver}^ sure that such is not the 

 case in the citrus fruits; for instance, 

 in 1912 I rebudded a healthy and normal 

 Eureka lemon tree in one of our per- 

 formance record blocks. On one half 

 of this tree I used buds cut from a 

 \'ariegated branch sport of a neigh- 

 boring Eureka lemon tree. On the 



other half of the rebudded tree I used 

 buds from the healthy branches of 

 the tree bearing the variegated limb 

 sport. The branches, leaves, and fruits 

 grown from the variegated buds have all 

 shown the characteristic variegated 

 condition of the branches, foliage, and 

 fruits of the variegated limb sport. 

 On the other half, the branches, leaves, 

 and foliage grown from the normal 

 buds are all normal in every respect 

 and have continued to be so from the 

 beginning of this experiment. In other 

 words, the variegated branches on the 

 rebudded tree have not influenced, so 

 far as variegation goes at least, the 

 branches grown from the normal buds 

 on the other half of this tree. I have 

 had several similar experiences with 

 both lemons and oranges, which have 

 led me to the conclusion that the use 

 of variegated citrus buds does not 

 influence in this respect any other 

 branches grown from a stock than those 

 developed from the variegated buds. 

 A. D. Shamel, 



Riverside, California. 



Tuberculosis among Natives of Alaska 



One of the greatest problems in 

 Alaska is how to stop the advance of 

 tuberculosis among the natives, accord- 

 ing to the annual report of the Bureau 

 of Education. At the Nome Hospital, 

 for instance, practically all the deaths 

 which occurred were due to this disease. 

 It is not generally recognized that this 

 represents evolution through natural 

 selection. The white races have become 

 relatively resistant to phthisis, due to 



the death of the least resistant stocks, 

 generation after generation, for thou- 

 sands of years. But the disease was not 

 known in America until after the time 

 of Columbus, and all the American 

 natives are therefore unselected against 

 it. When whites and natives live side 

 by side, and similarly when whites and 

 negroes live side by side, the white 

 man's disease, tuberculosis, finds most 

 of its victims among darker race. 



Ossification of the Bones of the Hand 



The bones of the hand are first laid 

 down in elastic cartilage, but before 

 the birth of a child lime has been de- 

 deposited in them and they have been 

 ossified enough to be relatively hard. 

 Prof. J. W. Pryor, of Kentucky Univer- 

 sity, has been studying this process, and 

 among the conclusions which he re- 

 ported at the last annual meeting of the 

 American Association of Anatomists 

 are several of general interest. He finds 



that the bones of the female ossify in 

 advance of those of the male, and that 

 the bones of the first child ossify, as a 

 rule, sooner than do those of subsequent 

 children. This corresponds to many 

 observations on different features, which 

 show that the order of birth has a real 

 influence on a child's character. Varia- 

 tion in the ossification of bones. Pro- 

 fessor Pryor concludes, is a heritable 

 trait. 



