534 



that after 3 years only 15 specimens remained. These he took 

 care of and budded on Prunus spinosa, but some peculiar 

 disease came and killed them one after the other. It was bark 

 rot, he said, that formed a blak ring right around the little 

 trunk close to the ground. Now he is hunting for peaches from 

 the northernmost limits and at the same time has made hybrids 

 between Amygdalus hybrida and Elberta peaches and others. The 

 plants he obtained are 2 years old now and resemble Amygdalus 

 nana more than A. persica; the fruits, however, may be dif- 

 ferent. I was not shown these little trees, for they were 

 covered up, being too valuable to be left unprotected. 



Mr. Mijurin further has hybridized pears extensively and 

 seems to have obtained some really important forms, able to 

 stand much more cold than the ordinary types. 



In apples I also noticed many hybrids , not only Malus 

 sylvestris x M. prunifolia, but also M. sylvestris x M. med- 

 wietzkyana and with M. baccata. Some seem to be good, but the 

 greater part are of course valueless. The M. medwietzkyana 

 hybrids were interesting, as half of them were red-wooded and 

 half white-wooded and one specimen was half red and half 

 white. Then there were hybrids between Prunus prostrata and 

 P. spinosa; between P. insititia and P. chamaecerasus .between 

 P. domestica and P. spinosa and various crosses between all 

 these species. 



I also heard that Amygdalus davidiana freezes in Kozlov 

 and also Prunus sibirica from Nertchensk! This last informa- 

 tion came as a shock to me, for who would expect a plant from 

 the Transbaikal territory to be tender in Central Russia? 

 Nearly all plants from Manchuria also freeze in Kozlov, it 

 isn't the wood that gets hurt, no, it is the young growth 

 which gets caught by the late spring frosts and from which 

 these Manchurian plants never recover. 



Mr. Mijurin stated that Wladimir cherries are in little 

 favor with Russian fruit growers, for they only do well in 

 Wladimir and when tested in other regions, they decline in 

 vigor and the fruits become smaller and ultimately the plants 

 succmmb. If this is correct, we will have to develop types 

 suited to various localites. 



Then Mr. Mijurin has been hybridizing American black- 

 berries with wild Russian forms and obtained some fine forms. 

 And the same with American grapes and Caucasian, and he stated 

 that he possesses a hybrid of Vitis vinifera, "Dendrelabi" x 

 V. riparia, that possesses the hardiness of the last and has 

 very large fruits. The state in which his garden was showed 

 the observer that more work has been undertaken than profita- 

 bly could be disposed of and in case some sudden accident 

 should befall Mr. Mijurin most of the material v/ould disappear 

 without people knowing what it really was. Mr. Mijurin 



