356 



ing vines, which were ringed shortly before blossoming, furnished com- 

 paratively long bunches with an extremely large number of seedless berries, 

 between which were found only scattered normal ones. 



This formation of seedless grapes is a great injury, under our present 

 conditions, since the prematurely ripe grapes shrivel before the general 

 vintage until all the juice is lost, and drop off or decay; they, therefore, are 

 wasted. If, on the other hand, this degeneration is increased, it may be 

 termed an advantage. Probably our currants and Sultana raisins, among 

 which only scattered berries with seeds are found, are the products of 

 plants in which a seedless condition of the berries has become the rule. 

 In other localities, cuttings of the currant grape are said to bear grapes 

 with seeds. 



Eger^ gives some advice well worth considering. He studied the in- 

 dividuality of different varieties of grapes from many points of view and 

 found that certain plants of the same variety always ripen their berries 

 earlier and that many, under otherwise similar conditions, show a lesser 

 tendency to the falling of the bloom, which, especially in Riesling, is very 

 considerable. Accordingly, in each nursery and vineyard those individuals 

 should be labelled which are notable each year because of their favorable 

 development, and only from these should cuttings be chosen for propagation. 



Other processes are found in our stone fruit trees when grown for 

 trade. If the wood is thinned too much, i.e. too many leaf branches are 

 cut away, in order to furnish light for the blossoms and young fruit, the 

 buds, blossoms and young fruit may be dropped. By the sudden decrease 

 of the evaporating leaf surfaces, an increased root pressure sets in for the 

 other organs, which cannot take up the increased amount of water. Cleav- 

 age of the abscission layer results. The dropping of the organs can natural- 

 ly be initiated by other causes". 



The Shedding of the Young Flower Clusters of Hyacinths. 



Many shipments of hyacinth bulbs from different growers have shown 

 me that the shedding of complete but undeveloped flower clusters is not of 

 rare occurrence. The uncolored, otherwise perfectly healthy flower clusters, 

 still rather short, may be Hfted from entirely healthy bulbs with fully de- 

 veloped, often excessively elongated foliage. In the very luxuriant variety 

 Baron Van Thuyll (originated in Holland) I found yellowish areas on 

 otherwise normally developed leaves and these areas were slightly swollen, 

 even split here and there. The flow-er clusters were strong, perfectly 

 healthy, perhaps 8 cm. in length, with an equally long, perfectly healthy, 

 almost colorless stalk. 



The stalk had separated from the base of the bulb and the cells of the 

 former were found to be swelled up more or less ascus-like. This swelling 



1 Eger, E., Untersuchungen tiber die Methoden der Schadlingsbekampfung- 

 und uber neue Vorschlage zu Kulturmafsregeln fiir den Weinbau, Berlin, P. Parey, 

 1905, p. 63. 



^ The Dropping of the Buds of Peaches. Gard. Chron. XIII, 1893, p. 574. 



