464 REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE ON GENETICS. 
Darwin (“ Animals and Plants under Domestication,’’ 1868, vol. i., 
p. 336 et seq.) gives arguments for the supposition that the peach is 
derived from the almond. They are not, however, very conclusive. If 
this were so, one might reasonably suppose that amongst very numerous 
seedlings cases of reversion would occur. I have never noticed any but 
true peaches and nectarines. He goes on to say: “ Whether or not the 
peach has proceeded from the almond, it has certainly given rise to nec- 
tarines. Most varieties, both of peaches and nectarines, reproduce them- 
selves truly from seed.’”’ The following are the results of thirty-five 
GYOSSEeS : 
1. Six crosses of Peach x Peach resulted in 5 peaches and 1 nectarine. 
2. Hight ,, a x Nectarine ,, 5 » and 8 nectarines. 
ol woe = Nectarine x Peach a 8 33 and 2 - 
4. EKleyen,, . x Nectarine ,, 11 
From this it would seem that the peach is dominant. 
No. 1.—The nectarine produced by the peach-by-peach cross is interest- 
ing, since, although the parents were both peaches, the seed-parent’s 
descent on the female side is through three nectarines, its great-great- 
erandmother being a peach. The pollen-parent is the result of a nectarine 
2 crossed by a peach ¢, its grandmother being a nectarine descended 
from two generations of peaches. 
No. 2.—In six of the peach 2 by nectarine ¢ crosses (resulting in three 
peaches and three nectarines), the seed-parent descended from three genera- 
tions of nectarines, the first of which was a seedling from a peach. The 
seed-parent of the remaining two peaches had peaches for its progenitors 
on the distaff side for two generations. 
No. 3.—The two nectarines from the nectarine ? by peach & were 
derived from two separate crosses, each of which gave one peach and one 
nectarine. In the one case, the pollen-parent was a seedling from a peach, 
which came from a nectarine; in the other, the pollen-parent came from 
a peach, but the seed-parent’s female ancestors were a nectarine, a peach, 
and a peach. 
No. 4.—All eleven nectarine-by-nectarine crosses yielded nectarines, 
notwithstanding the fact that in ten of them either the seed- or pollen- 
parent, or both, had peaches amongst their immediate or remoter seed- 
parents. 
Reverting to Darwin, further on (loc. cit. pp. 840 and 341) he gives 
a list of peach trees which have borne nectarines or fruits part peach and 
part nectarine. This is not so very uncommon: I have seen such fruits 
myself; but the Carclew nectarine is still, as far as I know, unique. 
This was “an ungrafted seedling nectarine, which, when twenty years old, 
bore a fruit half peach and half nectarine, and subsequently a perfect 
peach.” 
The two suggested explanations, which Darwin gives but dismisses, 
have neither of them been borne out here. The first is that the trees on 
which this bud-variation has occurred have been in every case hybrids 
between the peach and nectarine, and have reverted by bud-variation or 
by seed to one of their pure parent forms. The second is that the fruit of 
