362 Variations in Fruit. 



VARIATIONS IN FRUIT. 



Every one who has given attention to the different varieties of fruit, 

 has soon discovered that specimens of the same kind vary greatly in 

 different seasons and locah'ties. We have often heard the remark that 

 " pears vary much moi"e this year than they ever did before;" w^hen 

 the truth was that the speaker had learned to be more critical in his ex- 

 aminations, and to detect differences which, would once have escaped 

 him. We know of limited spots 'where pears always come more rus- 

 seted than a short distance away, and the pears from particular gardens 

 will often show a peculiar character of smoothness or roughness, or will 

 be otherwise marked. So much is this the case, that when it has been 

 proposed to conceal the names of contributors to horticultural exhibi- 

 tions, for the purpose of securing greater impartiality in the awards of 

 premiums, it has seemed to us that, with a little experience, one could 

 easily recognize the different collections by their peculiar characteristics. 

 Indeed those who have not more than half a dozen trees of the same 

 variety, will often find, even in the same garden, a marked difference in 

 the habit of growth of the trees and character of their fruit. We might 

 say that no two trees are precisely alike ; but each one has an individu- 

 ality, and from these variations, so slight as to be almost imperceptible to 

 the most acute and experienced eye, there is every gradation up to the 

 cases where the fruit from two trees of the same variety can only be 

 recognized as the same by the best educated eyes, or perhaps not even 

 by them. A remarkable instance of variation was described in the re- 

 port for 1869 of the Fruit Committee of the Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society, published in our Vol. VIII. , p. 42. And we recollect 

 a very curious sport of the Bartlett pear, presented to the same society', 

 by the late Captain Josiah Lovett, which was deemed so noteworthy, 

 that an accurate painting was made of it. It was of medium size, cov- 

 ered with thick russet, and we do not think that the shrewdest pomolo- 

 gist would ever have suspected that it grew on a Bartlett tree. 



We need much more extended observation to settle the question how 

 far such variations as we have mentioned will be permanent, and we 

 hope that all who may make any such will record and publish them. 

 At present we cannot recall any really distinct variety produced in this 

 way that has come into general cultivation, and it is our belief that 

 much tlie larger part of the variations we have mentioned are of short 

 duration when the plants are transferred to other soils or climates, or 



