430 ON THE DIRECT ACTION OF THE Chap. XI. 



jmrple-flowered plants like their father; whilst the pale brown 

 seeds yielded normal red- flowered plants ; and Major Clarke, by 

 sowing similar seeds, has observed on a greater scale the same 

 result. The evidence in this case of the direct action of the pollen 

 of one species on the colour of the seeds of another species appears 

 to me conclusive. 



Gallesio"^ fertilised the flowers of an orange with pollen from the 

 lemon; and one fruit thus produced bore a longitudinal strijie of 

 peel having the colour, flavour, and other characters of the lemon. 

 Mr. Anderson"^ fertilised a green-fleshed melon with pollen from a 

 scarlet-fleshed kind ; in two of the fruits " a sensible change was 

 perceptible : and four other fruits were somewhat altered both 

 internally and externally." The seeds of the two first-mentioned 

 fruits produced plants partaking of the good properties of both 

 parents. In the United States, where Cucurbifaceas are largely 

 cultivated, it is the popular belief*^' that the fruit is thus directly 

 affected by foreign pollen ; and I have received a similar statement 

 with respect to the cucumber in England. It is believed that 

 grapes have been thus affected in colour, size, and shape : in France 

 a pa'e-coloured grape had its juice tinted by the pollen of the dark- 

 coloured Teinturier ; in Germany a variety bore berries which were 

 affected by the pollen of two adjoining kinds ; some of the berries 

 being only partially affected or mottled.^"* 



As long ago as 1751'"' it was observed that, when differently- 

 coloured varieties of maize grew near each other, they mutually 

 affected each other's seerls, and this is now a popular belief in the 

 United States. Dr. Savi '^^ tried the experiment with care : he 

 sowed yellow and black-seeded maize together, and on the same ear 

 some of the seeds were yellow, some black, and some mottled, the 

 differently coloiired seeds being arranged irregularly or in rows. 

 Prof. Hildebrand has repeated the experiment "* with the ]irecaution 

 of ascertaining that the mother-plant was true. A kind be-iring 

 yellow grains was fertilised with pollen of a kind having brown 

 grains, and two ears produced yellow grains mingled with others of 

 a dirty violet tint. A third ear had only yellow grains, but one side 

 of the spindle was tinted of a reddish-brown ; so that here we have 

 the important fact of the influence of the foreign pollen extending 



132 «Trnite' du Citrus,' p. 40. quoted in Henfrey's 'Botanical 



133 I Transact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. iii. Gazette,' vol. i. p. 'Ill . A case in 

 p. 318. See also vol. v. p. 65. England has recently been alluded to 



'^^ Prof. Asa Gray, ' Proc. Acad. by the Rev. J. M. Berkeley before the 



Sc.,' Boston, vol. iv., 1H60, p. 21. I Hort. Soc. of London; 

 have received statements to the same '^^ ' Philosophical Transactions,' 



effect from other persons in the United vol. .\lvii., 1751-52, p. 10^. 

 States. "' Gallesio, ' Teoria d-illa Riprodu- 



"^ For the French case, see ' Journ. ziono ' 1816, p. 95. 

 Hort. Soc.,' vol. i. new series, 1866, p. '^s 'Bot. Zeitung,' May, 186S, p, 



50. For Germany, sej M, Jack, 326. 



