32 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1280 



above the water. At some points, however, the 

 root mat comes down to the water's edge, hut 

 although suitable erieaeeous soil occurs in 

 many places on the other side of the brooklet, 

 sometimes no more than three paces away, and 

 other erieaeeous plants occupy both banks, the 

 box huckleberry has never jumped this tiny 

 barrier. 



The theory I advance is that the whole patch 

 has spread by the root from a single plant. 

 If this theory is correct the plant is undoubt- 

 edly more than -a thousand years old. If it 

 started in the middle of the present area and 

 grew at an average rate of six inches a year, 

 a liberal estimate judging from the observed 

 length of its annual rootstock increment, its 

 advance to its present front-line position 

 would have required 1,200 years. The widely 

 heralded hut half legendary thousand-year-old 

 rosebush of Hildesheim is easily outlived. 



As additional evidence that the whole of the 

 eight-acre patch consists of a single plant I 

 may say that notwithstanding the most pains- 

 taking search we found no seedlings. Many 

 small tufts were examined, but evei"j' one 

 proved to be attached by a rootstock to an 

 older piece. The base of the hill on which the 

 patch occurs had been undercut for more than 

 250 yards by a public road. The steep bank 

 between the road and the hill, formed many 

 years ago in the grading of the road, furnishes 

 at several points good germination beds for 

 the seeds of the overhanging plants. In a 

 careful search along the whole bank not a seed- 

 ling of the box huckleberry was found, al- 

 though the bank did bear seedlings of the 

 closely related plants, laurel, dry-land blue- 

 berry and trailing arbutus. 

 , The plant was in fruit at the time of our 

 visit, the delicate light hlue berries being par- 

 ticularly charming in their setting of dark 

 green box-like foliage. A resident of the 

 neighborhood told us that the plant fruited 

 every year. Why then are there no seedlings ? 

 I have recorded elsewhere, in an account of 

 my blueberry breeding experiments, that in- 

 dividual blueberry plants, close relatives of the 

 huckleberries, are partially or completely ster- 

 ile to their own pollen. The seeds from such 



a pollination, if any are secured, are sterile, 

 or if they germinate the seedlings are feeble 

 and never develop into strong plants, even 

 under the protecting care of cultivation. If 

 this Pennsylvania box huckleberry patch con- 

 sists of only one plant its seeds might be ex- 

 pected to be sterile or of feeble germination. 

 And this in fact was found to be true. On 

 examination about 90 per cent, of the seeds 

 proved to be empty shells. Only about 10 per 

 cent, contained endosperms. On November 20, 

 1918, 1,600 seeds were sowed in eight boxes in 

 a suitable soil of peat and sand and subjected 

 to different temperature treatments. From 

 this sowing only three seeds germinated, and 

 the three seedlings are feeble. From other 

 sowings made on July 20, 1918, a somewhat 

 better but still very poor germination was se- 

 cured, and the largest of the plants, at the age 

 of six months, are less than an inch high. 

 , Further evidence that the whole patch con- 

 sists of one plant is afforded by its botanical 

 characters. With the exception of differences 

 in size and vigor, due apparently to differences 

 in the amount of nutrition, the plant is re- 

 markably uniform over the whole area. This 

 uniformity is particularly noticeable in the 

 fruit, which has a curious obovoid-pyriform 

 shape. While individual plants of other spe- 

 cies of bluelberries and huckleberries some- 

 times have this shape, a comparison of the fruit 

 of many individuals of any species shows 

 variation to other shapes, such as sphericalt or 

 even depressed. The uniformity in the form, 

 and in the color also, of the berries throughout 

 this patch is the same sort of uniformity that 

 one finds in fruits that have been reproduced 

 by cuttings, budding or grafting from a single 

 parent plant. 



On the theory that the perpetuation of the 

 species through seeds could be brought about 

 only by finding another plant, for cross polli- 

 nation, an endeavor was made to relocate the 

 Delaware station. Dr. C. S. Sargent informed 

 me that in company with Mr. William M. 

 Canby, the original discoverer, he had tried 

 several years ago to find the spot, but without 

 success, and he believed the plant had been 

 exterminated. Nevertheless I sent a botanist 



