350 



FRUITS. 



Chap. x. 



the Golden Harvey and the Siberian Crab ; and the latter, I believe, is con- 

 sidered by some authors as specifically distinct. 



The famous St. Yalery apple must not be passed over ; the flower has 

 a double calyx with ten divisions, and fourteen styles surmounted by 

 conspicuous oblique stigmas, but is destitute of stamens or corolla. The 

 fruit is constricted round the middle, and is formed of five seed-cells 

 surmounted by nine other cells. 94 Not being provided with stamens, the' 

 tree requires artificial fertilisation ; and the girls of St. Valery annually 

 go to "/aire ses pommes," each marking her own fruit with a ribbon • 

 and as different pollen is used, the fruit differs, and we here have an in- 

 stance of the direct action of foreign pollen on the mother-plant. These 

 monstrous apples include, as we have seen, fourteen seed-cells ; the pi»eon- 

 apple, 95 on the other hand, has only four, instead of, as with all common 

 apples, five cells ; and this certainly is a remarkable difference. 



In the catalogue of apples published in 1842 by the Horticultural 

 Society, 897 varieties are enumerated ; but the differences between most 

 of them are of comparatively little interest, as they are not strictly 

 inherited. No one can raise, for instance, from the seed of the Eibston 

 Pippin, a tree of the same kind ; and it is said that the " Sister Eibston 

 Pippin " was a white, semi-transparent, sour-fleshed apple, or rather large 

 crab. 96 Yet it is a mistake to suppose that with most varieties the cha- 

 racters are not to a certain extent inherited. In two lots of seedlings raised 

 from two well-marked kinds, many worthless, crab-like seedlings will 

 appear, but it is now known that the two lots not only usually differ from 

 each other, but resemble to a certain extent their parents. We see this 

 indeed in the several sub-groups of Russetts, Sweetings, Codlins, Pear- 

 mains, Reinettes, &c., 9r which are all believed, and many are known, to be 

 descended from other varieties bearing the same names. 



Pears (Pyrus communis). — I need say little on this fruit, which varies 

 much in the wild state, and to an extraordinary degree when cultivated, 

 in its fruit, flowers, and foliage. One of the most celebrated botanists in 

 Europe, M. Decaisne, has carefully studied the many varieties ; 98 although 

 he formerly believed that they were derived from more than one species, 

 he is now convinced that all belong to one. He has arrived at this conclu- 

 sion from finding in the several varieties a perfect gradation between the 

 most extreme characters; so perfect is this gradation that he maintains it 

 to be impossible to classify the varieties by any natural method. M. De- 

 caisne raised many seedlings from four distinct kinds, and has carefully 

 recorded the variations in each. Notwithstanding this extreme degree of 



94 * Mem. de la Soc. Linn, de Paris,' 

 torn, iii., 1825, p. 164; and Seringe, 

 'Bulletin. Bot.' 1830, p. 117. 



95 ' Gardener's Chronicle,' 1849, p 

 24. 



96 R. Thompson, in < Gardener's 

 Chron.,' 1850, p. 788. 



97 Sageret, 'Pomologie Phvsiolo- 



gique,' 1830, p. 263. Downing' s ' Fruit 

 Trees,' pp. 130, 134, 139, &e. Loudon's 

 ' Gardener's Mag.,' vol. viii. p. 317. 

 Alexis Jordan, ' De l'Origine des diverses 

 Varietes,' in ' Mem. de l'Acad. Imp. de 

 Lyon,' torn, ii., 1852, pp. 95, 114. ' Gar- 

 dener's Chronicle,' 1850, pp. 774, 788. 

 98 ' Comptes Bendus,' July 6th, 1863. 



