426 THE APPLE 



these qualities ; but a study of the varieties of apples now grown 

 gives no evidence that any one of them has come into existence by 

 continuous selection or that any variety has improved or degenerated 

 through the cumulative action of natural or artificial selection. No 

 precise experimental evidence has been offered to prove that varie- 

 ties of fruit can be changed in the least by continuous bud-selection. 

 Scientific research seems wholly to disprove of the theory of the 

 transmission of acquired characters, and of continuous selection as 

 a process for improving or changing plants grown from seeds. 



The differences to be found in all varieties of the apple are due 

 to changing environment — if we except the rare bud-mutations, 

 the causes of which are not known. Environmental changes pro- 

 duce manifold modifications in many of the characters of individual 

 apple trees, but there is nothing to show that such changes have 

 any effect on varietal characters. These variations appear when 

 individuals of a variety have different environments ; with a return 

 to the original environment, they disappear. A Baldwin taken from 

 New York to Virginia produces an apple different from the New 

 York Baldwin ; when taken to Missouri or to Oregon the results 

 are still different. If trees are brought back from these states to 

 New York, they again become New York Baldwins. 



Appearance of the fruit. In connection with the mutual affinity 

 of varieties which are selected for cross-pollination, there comes 

 the question of the immediate influence of pollen. For instance, 

 if Mcintosh pollen is put on Ben Davis pistils, will it impart the 

 Mcintosh flavor, color, and characteristic shape to the resulting 

 fruit ? Of course the characters of both may be united in the 

 seeds, and the trees which come from these seeds may be expected 

 to be intermediate, but is the flesh of the fruit ever changed by 

 foreign pollen ? 



The increase in size which often follows crossing cannot be called 

 a true immediate influence, for the foreign pollen generally stim- 

 ulates the fruit to a better growth because it is more acceptable 

 to the pistils, not because it carries over the size-character of the 

 variety from which it came. Hyslop Crab pistils, when fertilized 

 with pollen from the large Tompkins King, grew into fruits of the 

 usual crab size. An immediate influence in size may be possible, 

 for the size of the fruit is nearly as constant a varietal character as 



