8 



In Irish potatoes, Carriere (8) shows that many striking bud mutations 

 occur which have been preserved through selection. East (19) records bud mu- 

 tations as shown by the color, shape, character of eyes, and habit of growth, of 

 the tubers which remained constant in propagation. Gilbert (26) says that the 

 principal method of improving the Irish potato is through bud selection. 



In the sweet potato, H. C. Thompson, formerly horticulturist of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, in a personal statement in 1917 informed the writer 

 that this plant is exclusively propagated vegetatively and that all commercially 

 grown sweet potato varieties have originated as bud mutations. 



In apples, Hedrick (28) describes four strains which are now commonly 

 accepted as varieties of the Twenty-ounce which originated as bud mutations. 

 Farmer (23) describes the Oswego variety as originating as a bud mutation of 

 the Northern Spy. Fletcher (24) gives an account of the Chesebro Spy variety 

 which originated as a bud mutation of the Northern Spy. Mead (34) records a 

 mutation of the Gravenstein variety having fruits with solid red color which has 

 been propagated through bud selection. A seedless mutation of the Porter apple 

 was discovered and called to the writer's attention by J. A. Dorrance at Scotland, 

 Connecticut, in 1913. This consisted of one of the main limbs in an old tree. 

 It has borne similar fruits each year since then and has been propagated. 

 Beach (4) describes the Banks apple as a mutation of the Gravenstein variety, 

 the Collamer as a sport of the Twenty-ounce, and the Red Russet and Olympia 

 as mutations of the Baldwin variety. Castle (9) refers to two strains of the 

 Williams apple, one having conspicuously striped fruits and the other having 

 nearly solid red color. Other striking mutations in apple varieties have been 

 observed, an example of which is shown in Plate 8, including red and russet 

 variations of the Rome (1, 2), oblong-shaped Grimes (1), solid dark-red varia- 

 tions of the striped Ben Davis, and various shaped fruits in Baldwin apple trees 

 observed by the writer at Seymour, Connecticut, during recent years in indi- 

 vidual tree performance record plats of trees of these varieties in the J. H. Hale 

 orchards. 



In peaches, Darwin (15) records peach trees producing buds which when 

 developed into branches yielded nectarines and that six named and several un- 

 named varieties of the peach have thus produced several varieties of the nec- 

 tarine. Carriere (8) describes two varieties of the peach, the carnation-flowered, 

 having a flesh-rose color, and the many-colored-flowered, possessing white striped 

 colors, which originated as bud mutations. He also gives the willow-leaved red 

 Madeleine and the laciniate-leaved red Madeleine as varieties originating as bud 

 sports. Fletcher (24) mentions a white-fleshed clingstone or semi-freestone va- 

 riety originating as a bud mutation of the Early Michigan. Powell (40) records 

 the propagation of an early ripening mutation of the Mountain Rose peach. The 

 writer found several branches in Elberta trees in the performance-record plat 

 of this variety in the J. H. Hale orchards at South Glastonbury, Connecticut, in 

 1912, bearing fruits without pubescence and otherwise apparently identical with 

 fruits of the new J. H. Hale variety. Furthermore, branches were found in 



