THE QUINCE 251 



Unavailing effort was made for two years to 

 stimulate the growth of these interesting hybrids. 



The pure-bred Chinese quinces in the same row 

 came in due course to the time of fruiting, but 

 the hybrids showed no propensity to flower, and 

 the tallest were less than a foot in height when 

 their uncrossed relatives had grown to the height 

 of ten or twelve feet. 



Transplanting to orchard soil and special cul- 

 tivation appeared to have no effect on the dwarfs. 

 The experiment was made of grafting some of 

 them into old quince trees of each of the parents. 

 Some of the grafts grew and had rambling, 

 spiral-shaped branches, but they stopped grow- 

 ing when they had attained a length of two or 

 three feet. Grafting appeared to give them 

 somewhat enhanced powers of growth, but, like 

 the hybrid seedlings from which the cions were 

 cut, they remained absolutely sterile. 



No bush or tree of the entire lot ever put forth 

 a single blossom. 



OTHER DWARFS RECALLED 



It is interesting to recall, in connection with 

 the curious result of this experiment in hybridiz- 

 ing the quinces of widely varying species, the re- 

 sults of my hybridization of the California and 

 Persian walnuts. 



