Chap. XI. 



FRUIT. 



375 



it is 



production of peaches from nectarines, either by seeds or buds, may 

 perhaps be considered as a case of reversion. Certain trees have also been 

 described as indifferently bearing peaches or nectarines, and this may be 

 considered as bud-variation carried to an extreme degree. 



The grosse mignonne peach at Montreuil produced "from a sporting 

 branch" the grosse mignonne tardive, "a most excellent variety," which 

 ripens its fruit a fortnight later than the parent tree, and is equally good. 1 

 This same peach has likewise produced by bud-variation the early grosse 

 mignonne. Hunt's large tawny nectarine "originated from Hunt's small 

 tawny nectarine, but not through seminal reproduction." 2 



Plums— Mr. Knight states that a tree of the yellow magnum bonum 

 plum, forty years old, which had always borne ordinary fruit, produced 

 a branch which yielded red magnum bonums. 3 Mr. Eivers, of Sawbridge- 

 worth, informs me (Jan. 1863) that a single tree out of 400 or 500 trees of 

 the Early Prolific plum, which is a purple kind, descended from an old 

 French variety bearing purple fruit, produced when about ten years old 

 bright yellow plums; these differed in no respect except colour from 

 those on the other trees, but were unlike any other known kind of yellow 



plum. 4 



Cherry (Primus cerasus).— Mr. Knight has recorded (idem) the case of a 

 branch of a May-Duke cherry, which, though certainly never grafted, 

 always produced fruit, ripening later, and more oblong, than the fruit on 

 the other branches. Another account has been given of two May-Duke 

 cherry-trees in Scotland, with branches bearing oblong, and very fine 

 fruit, which invariably ripened, as in Knight's case, a fortnight later than 



ijiTP otjiTPl? 0ilPl'I*16S ° 



Grapes (Vitis vinifera).— The black or purple Frontignan in one case 

 produced during two successive years (and no doubt permanently) spurs 

 which bore white Frontignan grapes. In another case, on the same foot- 

 stalk, the lower berries "were well-coloured black Frontignans; those next 

 the stalk were white, with the exception of one black and one streaked 

 berry ;" and altogether there were fifteen black and twelve white berries 

 on the same stalk. In another kind of grape black and amber-coloured 

 berries were produced in the same cluster. 6 Count Odart describes a 

 variety which often bears on the same stalk small round and large oblong 

 berries; though the shape of the berry is generally a fixed character^ 

 Here is another striking case given on the excellent authority of M 

 Carriere: 8 "a black Hamburgh grape (Frankenthal) was cut down, and 

 produced three suckers ; one of these was layered, and after a time pro- 

 duced much smaller berries, which always ripened at least a fortnight 



1 ' Gardener's Chron.,' 1854, p, 821. 



2 ' Lindley's Guide to Orchard,' as 

 quoted in « Gard. Chronicle,' 1852, p. 

 821. For the Early mignonne peach, 

 see 'Gardener's Chron.,' 1864, p. 1251. 



3 ' Transact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. ii. p. 160. 



4 See also ' Gardener's Chron.,' 1803, 

 p. 27. 



5 'Gard. Chron.,' 1852, p. 821. 



6 Gardener's Chron.,' 1852, p. 629 ; 

 1856, p. 648 ; 1864, p. 986. Other cases 

 are given by Braun, ' Rejuvenescence,' m 

 'Ray Soc. Bot. Mem.,' 1853, p. 314. 



7 ' Ampelographie,' &c, 1849, p. 71. 



8 ' Gardener's Chronicle,' 1 866, p. 970. 



,'ietf' 



