38 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JULY 
access of the bees. No fruit was borne on this branch, but was 
developed upon the neighboring ones. The details of this experi- 
ment cannot be vouched for, but until more careful ones are tried 
it is affirmative evidence for pollination. 
On a fruit farm beyond the city limits of Decatur is a cluster of 
6 or 8 trees, the largest of which is the parent of the smaller ones. 
The gardener reports that seedless fruit occurs on all these trees, 
but not in the same proportion. The fruit of the largest tree is 
usually many-seeded and only rarely seedless, but some of the 
smaller trees bear few-seeded and seedless fruit abundantly. No 
differences were noted among the flowers of these trees, or any 
when the prepared material was compared with that from native 
trees. The later stages are yet to be examined, for no collections 
have been made from the cluster after the flowering time. 
The nearest staminate tree is not known. One was reported 
within a quarter of a mile, but two careful examinations of the 
region have failed to locate it. Since persimmon trees in bloom 
always swatm with bees, they are doubtless the pollinating agent. 
It does not seem probable that the bees avoid certain trees, but 
it is possible that the supply of pollen which they carry is limited, 
and is deposited most freely on those trees which from their posi- 
tion they visit first. The trees of the cluster which bear the larger 
proportion of abnormal fruit are the least exposed trees. 
That the distance of the staminate trees does make a difference 
in the fruit is reported in the 1907 Yearbook of the Department 
of Agriculture, in which one variety is mentioned as characteris- 
tically few-seeded, and the observation made that this and other 
varieties have fewer seeds when grown at a distance from staminate 
trees. 
In r910 the Decatur trees were again visited. A severe frost 
in May killed the first buds, consequently the conditions that 
season were not normal. The city trees bore no fruit at all, and 
the cluster only a small proportion of its normal amount. The 
fruit on all the trees was smaller than usual, inclined to early 
decay, and almost wholly seedless. One lot of 33 contained only 
one seeded-fruit; another of 12, two. The embryos were normal. 
This state of affairs suggests an indifference to fertilization, even 
