38 STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



very common in the Ruby Blood. It has been popularly be- 

 lieved, when seen in other varieties, to be the result of cross- 

 pollination from the Washington or some other variety of 

 Navel. In the light of recent investigations this is deemed 

 impossible. Experiments the coming season will undoubtedly 

 be made to substantiate this view. I am inclined to think that 

 this was among the first changes in the bitter orange, to destroy 

 the staminal supremacy' of that fruit. Whenever a fruit car- 

 ries this mark it produces less seed and carries greater relative 

 sweetness to its acidity. The original plants were received 

 at Washington from Bahia, Brazil, and a number were sent by 

 the Government to Florida and California for cultivation. 

 The different results of cultivation and environment in the 

 two areas show marked tendencies in tree development and 

 fruitfulness. These questions arise: Were those plants of uni- 

 form excellence? Did the Florida plants possess the same 

 inherited qualities that the California plants possessed? Did 

 the trees received at Riverside each possess equal excellence as 

 a budding stock, and does the tree now in Washington possess 

 the average inherited qualities of those in California and 

 Florida? Satisfactory answers to these questions have an 

 important bearing in solving the cause of the difierent develop- 

 ments of the variety as grown in the two areas. If there 

 were inherent qualities of variation in the plants distributed 

 to the two areas, the difference in the habits of tree growth and 

 fruitfulness would be in part accounted for. If plants of known 

 purity of strain were exchanged by the two sections, Florida 

 and California, consisting of well-developed buds, on both the 

 sour and sweet stocks, and planted in average climatic con- 

 ditions in the two areas, should show a tendency to change 

 their habits of growth and fruitfulness, then climatic conditions 

 would be considered a cause sufficient for these effects and the 

 question of type inheritance be answered. Buds from the tree 

 at Washington distributed to the two sections and treated as 

 those exchanged by the two producing areas would further 

 simplify the solution of inherent qualities. 



Navel Unfruitfulness.—Theol•&nge-gl•o^vel■s of Florida observed 

 the unfruitfulness of the Navel, in that State, early in its history. 

 This seemed to show itself in the young trees as well as in the 

 older orchards. The absence of pollen was noticed, and its 



