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MEMOIRS 



OF THE 



TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 



Vol. I. 



No. 4. 



SEEDLESS FRUITS. 



J 



By E. Lewis Sturtevaxt, .South Franiingham, Mass. 



4 



If we seek ift nature an occurrence which is distinctly preju- 

 dicial to the continuance and distribution of species, we find an 

 illustration in seedless fruits. Unless correlated with a develop- 

 ment or increase of other means of propagation, as by suckering, 

 off-shoots or bulbs, seedlessness must eventually bring about the 

 destruction of the variety which its advent marks- Hence, seed- 

 lessness is more apt to be noted in cultivated or protected plants. 

 In'nature we would suppose that seedless fruits would necessarily 

 be confined to the restricted locality wherein they have origi- 

 nated, for it is only under man's care, as it would seem, that they 

 can receive a general distribution, although the habit of a spe- 



cies towards seedlessness may cause similar variety originations 

 in different localities. Hence it is with extreme surprise that 

 we note the wide extension of Acorus Calamus, a plant that so 

 rarely perfects its fruit that this has been seen by but few bota- 

 nists/ Yet sterility is but the extreme of the partial sterility, or 

 more or less fruitfulness, which is so constantly noted, and we 

 cannot consider the causes of one without more or less consider- 

 ing the causes of the other. 



The causes of sterility, either partial or complete, must be 

 many and complicated. The various factors combined under the 

 term season are an influential series, as we note the increased 

 fruitfulness of various wild fruits in one season as against another; 



I Darwin, An. and PL ii. 207. 



