262 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 332. 



viduality and his own creative imagination by intensifying 

 the character she presents — ennobling, purifying, glorify- 

 ing her suggestions. The artist on canvas may choose 

 what he wishes to do at any given time and place, pro- 

 vided that, once his theme is selected, he keeps it clearly 

 in mind and transgresses no essential truth in explaining 

 it. But the artist in landscape must consent, at any given 

 place, to do what Nature then and there prescribes, or, at 

 least, permits. To try to wipe out her work is futile ; to try 

 to conceal its character and supply a new one can result 

 merely in an abortion which is admirable neither to the 

 genuine lover of Nature nor the genuine lover of Art. This 

 is true even when we think of a real artist at work ; and if 

 we think how much more true it must be when ignorant 

 owners, assisted by men who may grow plants well, but 

 have no knowledge whatever of art, strive to do artists' 

 work, then we can comprehend why so few American 

 country places, large or small, give any pleasure to intelli- 

 gent observers. When we really understand in what points 

 Art stands in contrast to Nature, and 111 how far it must 

 rest upon Nature and get its inspiration from her, then we 

 shall realize that lawns and flower-beds are appropriate, 

 and therefore artistic, in some situations, absolutely formal 

 gardens in others, and almost absolute wildness in others ; 

 and that between these types, as within each of them, an 

 infinite number of beautiful gardening schemes may be 

 evolved — infinite because the beauty of Nature varies per- 

 petually — and if we search over the whole surface of our 

 wide and fruitful land we can find no scene which is not 

 distinct from every other in its essence, its character and 

 its expression. 



Flowering and Fertilization of the Native Plum. 



THE uncertainty of fruitage in our native Plums is well 

 known by all who have attempted their cultivation. A 

 full bloom of most other fruits is usually followed by at least 

 a fair setting of fruit, but with the native Plums — I use the 

 plural number because there are several species — bloom on 

 the average tree is no certain indication that any fruit will 

 form. It is not my purpose to note the many contingencies 

 that lie between a crop of well-fertilized ovaries on the Plum- 

 tree and the delicious mature fruit that attracts the eye and 

 tempts the palate, but rather to confine myself to contingen- 

 cies that lie between the opening of the petals and the fertili- 

 zation of the ovary. In this work I shall consider some of the 

 reasons for the frequent failures in fertilization that have 

 been suggested by others, supplemented, so far as possible, 

 by personal observation upon our own Plum-trees. 



First, I may mention that in the varieties of Plum of which 

 I have examined the flowers, thirty-four in number, those 

 belonging to our native species have decidely more slender 

 styles and smaller stigmas than those of the European Plum, 

 Prunus domestica, and I have observed this season that the 

 slender styles of our native varieties were more often broken 

 or bent by driving rain than those of the Domestica varieties. I 

 should add, however, that I have examined but few of the 

 varieties of P. domestica in this particular. I infer that a 

 severe rain-storm, during full bloom, would work much 

 greater harm to our native than to the European varieties. 



A lack of pollen has sometimes been ascribed as a reason 

 for infertility in our native Plums. I cannot say that this 

 never occurs, but all of the varieties growing at the Wisconsin 

 Experiment Station that bloomed this season appeared to 

 produce abundant pollen. When we consider that all of the 

 anthers in the same flower rarely mature at the same time, 

 and that the flowers on a given tree usually have a range of some 

 days in their time of opening, it hardly seems probable that, 

 where abundant pollen is produced, a total failure in pollina- 

 tion could result, even in unfavorable weather. I suspect that 

 a rain-storm occurring when the trees are in full bloom, if not 

 sufficiently severe to destroy the styles, would promote self- 

 pollination, for, as I have observed, rain tends to dislocate the 

 stamens, and often brings the anthers directly in contact with 

 the stigma. 



Imperfect pistils, or an absence of pistils, has also been 

 offered as a reason for infertility in native Plums. Unques- 

 tionably this defect sometimes occurs. Professor Bailey men- 

 tions* a wild Plum-tree of his acquaintance that bears flowers 



* Bulletin No. 3S, Cornell University Experiment Station, 



without pistils, also that, in the season of 1892, only about one 

 flower in twelve of the Newman Plum at Cornell University 

 had a perfect pistil. I have made careful observations on this 

 point in our own Plum-trees during the present season and 

 find a marked difference in varieties as to the percentage of 

 perfect pistils. I have tabulated the results of my observa- 

 tions as follows : 



De Soto 



Forest Garden 



Forest Rose 



Homestead 



Le Due 



Maquoketa 



Mariana 



Miner 



Moore's Arctic 



Moreman 



Ocheda 



Pottawattamie 



Quaker 



Robinson 



Seedling from German Prune 



Seedling No. 3, Gale 



Seedling from Sparta 



Smith's Red 



White Nicholas , 



Wild Goose 



Wolf 



Wyant 



116 

 109 

 »3 

 59 

 116 



134 



247 

 105 

 127 

 104 



"3 



104 

 106 

 104 

 101 

 105 

 106 

 122 

 100 



123 



10S 



"5 



o 2 





107 

 106 

 108 

 49 

 87 

 127 



154 

 10 1 

 121 



3° 

 104 

 100 

 100 



65 

 84 

 S7 

 I 1 

 112 

 100 

 76 

 98 

 97 



1 



o 

 o 

 9 

 5 

 2 

 62 

 1 



37 

 1 

 8 

 4 

 3 

 o 



35 

 10 



J5 



o-g] 



I 



12 

 I 



20 

 O 

 I 

 I 



4 



1 

 I 



8 

 1 



12 



4 



o 



12 



o 



"ti 



97- 

 95- 

 81. 



75- 

 95- 

 62. 

 96. 



95- 



29. 



92 



96. 



94 



62 5 



83- 



83- 



68. 



92. 



Ii o 



62. 



91- 



84. 



I endeavored to ascertain if the proportion of the flowers 

 that formed fruits in the different varieties corresponds with 

 the percentage of perfect flowers. At first I concluded that there 

 was such a correspondence. The number of embryo fruits 

 that appeared after the falling of the petals was unquestionably 

 greater, as compared with the number of blossoms, on the 

 trees that had a high percentage of perfect flowers than on those 

 in which the percentage of perfect flowers was low. But a new 

 factor entered here that I do not understand. After the minia- 

 ture plums had attained the size of an apple-seed, or a little 

 larger, a large proportion of them dropped from some of the 

 trees that had shown a high percentage of perfect flowers. 

 This shows that another influence affected the fertilization 

 besides the question of perfect pistils. We had a cold period 

 about this time, and it is possible, as Mr. R. P. Speer has sug- 

 gested, f that the low temperature prevented the formation of 

 the pollen tube. I observed, also, that the after failure of the 

 fruits was sometimes most marked in varieties that appar- 

 ently possessed the most robust pistils. The White Nicholas, 

 a Russian variety of the Prunus domestica species, was the 

 only variety I examined that showed 100 per cent, of perfect 

 pistils, and I noted that the styles and stigmas of this variety 

 were especially large, yet the number of fruits on this tree at 

 this time is very small, and the trouble is not from the curculio. 

 The miniature fruits turned yellow and dropped when about 

 the size of an apple-seed. 



It is of interest that of the varieties that I have examined, the 

 four showing the smallest percentage of perfect flowers, More- 

 man, Wild Goose, Robinson and Mariana, are all of some 

 other species than Prunus Americana ; also, that the varieties of 

 the European Plum that I have examined have all shown a 

 high percentage of perfect flowers. We have several varieties 

 of the latter species that failed to bloom this year, possibly be- 

 cause their flower-buds were destroyed by cold. 



From the testimony of others, I conclude that the percentage 

 of imperfect flowers in a given variety often varies in different 

 seasons. Professor Bailey, in the bulletin above cited, says, 

 "Imperfect flowers are occasionally observed, but they are 

 apparently peculiarities of individual trees or particular sea- 

 sons." The observations of Mr. O. M. Lord, of Minnesota City, 

 Minnesota, are especially valuable on this point. Mr. Lord 

 wrote me, under date of May 24th, 1894, " I began to study 

 Plum-blossoms a few years ago to see if I could get any light 

 on the non-bearing habits of some varieties, and also to see if 



t Bulletin No. 4, Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station. 



