AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 349 



COLOR OF FRUIT HAVING SEEDS OR PITS. 



Duliamel, the father of pomology and horticulture of France, 

 said that such fruits can be colored by means of the following 

 operations : When the fruit is fully grown, remove the leaves 

 which shade it, first on one side, soon after on the opposite side 

 and soon after the two other sides; and to make the color on its 

 cheeks deeper and more brilliant, take a hair pencil, dip it in fresh 

 water, and draw lines on the sunny side. This mode is peculiarly 

 successful on pears. 



Mens. Flotow, in his Monatschrift fuer Pomologie und Prak- 

 tischen Obstan, gives his experiments at length. He operated 

 on the Napoleon Beurre d'hiver, (Butter winter pear,) Diel, Mer- 

 veille, Charnen, and chiejEly on the long white Dechant, on 

 which he had observed the least redness. He w^et these pears 

 every morning and repeatedly during the day on their sunny sides, 

 whenever weather permitted. The result proved the truth of 

 Duhamel's experiment, for all the fruit so treated on the same tree 

 showed more deep red color than those left to nature; the Dechant 

 pear particularly showed color, it being naturally pale. Streaked 

 apples and pears are always so marked longitudinally, none equa- 

 torially. The experiments show that the streaks and color are 

 owing naturally to the dew on the fruit being acted on by the 

 rays of the sun. The " sun causes the dew on the fruit to gather 

 into spots more or less large, and some evaporated quicker than 

 others, and as the rays of the sun are more or less powerful, color 

 more or less deep, and according to the greater or less delicacy 

 of the skin. The fall and winter fruit are most deeply marked. 

 (Query — Do the drops act like the prism in producing color ? — H. 

 Meigs.) As a general thing pears are not much marked. 



FERNS— THEIR INTRODUCTION FROM FOREIGN COUN- 

 TRIES. 



Every body knows that Ferns are naturally propagated by 

 means of little brown bodies growing on the under sides of their 

 leaves — these bodies constitute fern seed. The real seed is con- 

 tained in these bodies and can hardly be seen with the naked eye. 

 When ripe these bodies (which are capsules,) open spontaneously 

 with an elastic force. The brown dust which we find come off 



