The following paper was presented by L. H. Bailey: 



A MEDLEY OF PUMPKINS 



L. H, Bailey, Horticulturalist Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 



Professor Bailey's manuscript was so long that he did not read it, but 

 gave the general results of his work in extemporaneous remarks; and he 

 then made a running comment on the significance of the work with pumpkin- 

 like plants and the general meaning and tendencies of the new theories that 

 are now occupying the attention of plant breeders. 



His work with cucurbitaceous plants was begun in 1887, and was con- 

 tinued for ten consecutive years. Its original purpose was to determine 

 whether there is an immediate influence of pollen on the fruit, a question 

 then under general discussion; but the work soon grew into a general line 

 of crossing and experimenting for the purpose of producing new types of 

 fruits that might have value to the horticulturist. More than one thousand 

 hand-crosses were made. Notes and photographs were made of the results. 

 In one season eight acres of land were required on which to grow the progeny 

 of the crosses. Altogether, some twenty-five or thirty acres were employed 

 in the work. Many more than one thousand kinds of fruit, undescribed in 

 any literature, were produced. Nearly all of these forms are yet shown in 

 photographs. The very magnitude of the results has prevented their publi- 

 cation. To show the work to advantage one hundred or more illustrations 

 should be made. However, it is doubtful whether it is worth while to pub- 

 lish the results in detail, because no underlying principles were discovered. 

 The results were very remarkable, however, because of the great number of 

 strange forms that were produced. Some of the results are published in the 

 author's "Plant-Breeding." 



Most of the experiments were made with the races of Cucurbita Pepo. 

 Crookneck, Bush Scallop, Bergen squashes, the Field pumpkin and various 

 ornamental gourds were oftenest used as parents. There was the greatest 

 possible diversity in the progeny, in most cases no two plants bearing the 

 same kind of fruit. In the second and third generations part of the progeny 

 was grown from plants again hand-crossed and part from plants that were 

 left to themselves. In some cases the plants were inbred that is, the 

 flowers were fertilized with pollen from another flower on the same plant 

 (Cucurbita is monoecious). There were no essential likenesses or unlikenesses 

 between these various categories. Even the progeny of inbred fruits was 

 as various as that from cross-bred fruits. In no case was there any immediate 

 influence of pollen, or xenia. In very many cases the progeny showed marked 



