144 SCIENCE AND FRUIT GROWING 



Such variation is considerable, and shows that it would be 

 hopeless to attempt to arrange a number of varieties of apples 

 in a series according to their order of flowering with any degree 

 of precision. There is, undoubtedly, some tendency towards 

 maintaining the same order of flowering in successive seasons ; 

 thus, the above values for the variation of the same varieties in 

 different years are 



Average 2*55 days, Maximum 13 days, 



and these may be compared with the variation of different 

 varieties in the same year, which was found to be 



Average 3*3 days, Maximum 17 days. 



Both of the latter values are 30 per cent, greater than the former, 

 so that we may say that, of the differences observed in the order 

 of flowering of a collection of apples, ten -thirteenths are due to 

 peculiarities in the season, and three-thirteenths to differences 

 inherent in the varieties ; or, that the season is three times more 

 effective in determining the order of flowering than is any intrinsic 

 peculiarity of the variety itself. 



Besides the apples forming the subject matter of the above 

 inquiry, records were taken of the flowering of 67 other varieties 

 of apples from countries other than England. 



In the case of the French apples, there was one variety (Grosse 

 St. Clement) which blossomed very exceptionally late, and, if 

 that be omitted, the averages for all the varieties of different 

 nationalities come very close to each other, varying only from 

 9'8 to io'6, thus affording no indication that the country of origin 

 has any effect on the date of blossoming. These values, however, 

 are all appreciably higher than the average with the English 

 apples, which was 8. 



