STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 71 



The first apple bloom we saw in the previous year, 1881, was 

 on the dith of June, and then the Talman Sweet was one of the first 

 ones to come out. This year, 1882, the Talman was one of the 

 last ones to bloom. Hence we conclude that location, sunshine 

 and warmth have more to do with eai ly blossoming than varieties 

 themselves. The only varieties that we thought could not mix 

 much in pollen were Rawle's Janet and Northern Spy. 



2. What varieties mature their blossoms simultaneously? Most 

 all the varieties commenced and matured about the same time 

 i(except the few late ones mentioned), as the weather was uni- 

 formly cool. 



3. Perfect and imperfect in self-pollenizing. The varieties 

 ■examined were all well developed in both pistils and stamens, 

 apples as well as crabs, pears aad all other blossoms. The winter 

 and spring weather was all very favorable for this. 



4. Varieties to he planted together for mutual pollenizing. We 

 cannot answer this better than in last year's paper. Plant con- 

 tiguously those varieties that blossom at the same time. We find 

 that all our fruit, of either apples, pears, plums, or cherries, were 

 fully impregnated or fertilized, as they are full of perfect seeds. 

 On close examination of the seeds it is found that there are but 

 few alike. They vary in color (even seeds from the same fruit) and 

 in shape and size as much so as you find on ears of corn where 

 it is exposed to be poUenized by another variety. 



4. Resisting power of blossoms to wind and frost. The latest 

 blooming, and blossoms with short pistils and hollow or cup- 

 shaped petals, which lock in and shield the embryo seed and 

 pollen, are the ones that resist the wind and frost the best. 



We had not discovered the difi'erence in seeds before, and would not 

 have known there is so much of interest connected with the study 

 of fruit blossoms; but seeing such a difference in petals in shapes 

 •and colors set us to examining and comparing the seeds of the fruit 

 of the same tree. Although the fruit does not seem to be affected 

 by the cross pollenizing, the seeds are greatly influenced, as any- 

 body can see by close observation. For instance, there is a variety 

 that has a light-brown or yellow-colored seed, and the pollen fer- 

 tilizes a variety that has a black seed, and here, in the new seed, 

 you will find the color of the male or pollenizing parent mixed in 

 the same as you do in corn. Then, again, where one variety is a 

 round or short oval shape and the other a slender and very oblong 

 one, you can trace the influence of the pollen in giving the shape 

 of the new seed; and I shall not be much disappointed if some 



