VOL. XLIII.J PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 16Q 



Concerning the Effect which the Farina of the Blossoms of different Sorts of 



Apple-trees had on the Fruit of a neighbouring Tree. By Mr. Benj. Cook, 



F. R. S. N" 477, p. 525. 



Mr. Cook sent to Mr. Peter Collinson some russetings changed by the farina 

 of a next neighbour, whose name he wanted skill to know; but could only say, 

 that the russeting had exactly acquired his face and complexion. 



[Mr. Collinson then produced several samples of the apples; an untainted 

 russeting; a russeting changed in complexion, which grew among a great cluster 

 of unaltered brethren; and some apples of the other tree, which had caused the 

 change in the russetings, and whose fruit had in return received a rough coat 

 from the russetings.] 



Theophrastus takes notice of this n«faXXayn, as he calls it; and tells us that 

 the old divines were wont to make a great pother about it, and foretel great 

 events by it : Pliny informs us, that there was one who wrote a whole book about 

 such changes. But the use now made of it, is chiefly this, that it may be of im- 

 portance to the curious in fruits, to take care how their trees are sorted, and 

 what company they keep. For though this change be not so conspicuous in ap- 

 ples which have a smooth green coat, as in the russet-breed, yet one may suppose 

 impressions of this sort often made on them ; and perhaps their juices altered for 

 the better or worse. 



Note. — Sir Jos. AylofFe, a wortliy Member of this Society, communicated, on July 1, 1731, from 

 the Rev. Mr. Henchman, prebendary of Salisbury, some observations on pease of different colour* 

 infecting each other in the same manner as the apples abovementioned. Mr. Henchman, in the 

 spring 1729, sowed a piece of ground in his garden with white pease, and two double rows of blue 

 pease, with an alley 4 feet wide between; in autumn, on gathering some for seed, he opened one 

 of the pods, and was surprised to see one blue pea at the end next the stalk, with 6 white pease : 

 but after having examined several other shells very carefully, he found a great variety of intermixtures 

 of the white and blue pease in the same shells, sometimes one white (or blue) only at one end, 

 sometimes at each end ; sometimes two white (or blue) with one of the other colour interchangeably ; 

 and thus the whole parcel that was rubbed out for seed was intermixt white and blue. The next 

 year, he says, not having plots of white and blue pease standing near each other, he did not find any 

 such mixture in the several parcels then saved for seed. But it is pity he did not pick out a sufficient 

 number of die blue pease from among the white, and sow iheni by themselves, in order to see what 

 coloured pease this mixed breed would have produced. — Orig. 



On the Sinking down of a Piece of Ground, at Horseford, in Norfolk. By Mr. 

 Arderon, of Norwich. N° 477, p. 527. 

 In the night between the 24th and 25th of June last [1745] a violent storm of 

 thunder and lightning happened at the city of Norwich, and the places adjacent ; 

 though at Norwich it seemed extraordinary only for the loudness of its claps, and 

 the length of several of the flashes ; some continuing near half a minute, which 

 were so extremely bright, that they caused some thin deal shutters to the windows 



VOL. IX. Z 



