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prove that the development of the embryo into a seedis notabso- 
utely necessary, at least in these plants, for the full growth of the 
ovary into a fruit. ae 
We may go yet further.” The above-noted cases may be explained 
by the action of the pollen, not on the ovule, but on the tissue of the 
But the case of the apple and the pear shows a difference. Here, 
though the pips usually develop, the effect of the pollen extends be- a 
yond them. As before, it affects the ovary, but does not stop there. it 
The calyx is involved, and, according tothe views of some, the flower- 
stalks also. The effects of the poilen are therefore in this fruit felt 
- by the ovule, the ovary, the calyx,.and possibly by the flower-stalk. 
What is true of the apple is also true of the pear, the quince, the — 
medlar, the hawthorne, and many other plants of the Rose family. $a 
Their fruit.is constructed on the same pattern, and the actionof the 
pollen in all such cases must therefore be equally extensive. ap 
But we may go even beyond this. We have all seen applesthat  _° 
contained no pips and yet were fully grown and showed all the 
characters of the variety. In these cases, as in those of the seedless 
orange, the banana, etc., the fertilizing effect of the pollen must 
have been directly exerted on the ovary without the intervention of  __ 
the ovule. : en 
A similar case is presented by a mulberry tree belonging to a 
friend of the writer. It is of the pistillate kind and is annually 
laden with fine fruit, though no staminate tree grows in the neigh- 
borhood and no staminate flowers can be found on the tree itself. 
Examination of the fruit also shows that the seeming seeds are 
merely shells without embryos. To assume that no pollen was con- 
cerned in the production of this fruit would be going too far, but it 
does seem the influence of the pollen, if present, must have been ex- 
erted directly on the ovary without the assistance of the ovule. 
Further still, we now and then find an apple or a pear which con- 
tains no pip, but also no core, so that the very ovary itself is lack- 
ing. Yet such apples often grow to the usual size andif not always 
well flavored are nevertheless true fruits. This is usually the case 
when the tree has flowered out of season. A horticultural friend of 
mine has informed me that in the year 1832, when he was a boy, a a 
late frost killed the apples, and that in the fall out of a peck or soof- 
wretched fruit, which was all that the orchard produced, not a single 
one had a pip or a core. | 
The following extract froma letter publishedin Natureon Novem- — — 
ber 4, 1886, bears on the same point. In it Dr. Maxwoll Masters, . 
the editor of the Gardener’s Chronicle, says: 
The second crop of blossoms in pear trees is usually produced on shoots of the 
same year and they are often imperfect. The Napoleon produces some every year. 
Every year, too, I receive from the Trinity Botanical Garden, at Dublin, Bishop’s 
Thumb pears onthesummer shoots. They are more like fingers than ‘‘thumbs” and 
haveno core. The fruit is eatable, but the carpels are absent. 
Ne have here, apparently, a case of the direct action of the pollen 
on the calyx of the flower, perhaps through the medium of a rudi- 
mentary stigma and ovary, which were afterwards atrophied. 
