376 



BUD VAKIATION. 



Chap. XI. 



$!• 



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earlier than the others. Of the remaining two suckers, one produced 

 every year fine grapes, whilst the other, although it set an abundance of 

 fruit, matured only a few, and these of inferior quality. 



Gooseberry (Ribes grossularia). — A remarkable case has been described by 

 Dr. Lindley 9 of a bush which bore at the same time no less than four 

 kinds of berries, namely, hairy and red, — smooth, small and red,— green 

 — and yellow tinged with buff ; the two latter kinds had a different flavour 

 from the red berries, and their seeds were coloured red. Three twigs on 

 this bush grew close together; the first bore three yellow berries and 

 one red ; the second twig bore four yellow and one red ; and the third 

 four red and one yellow. Mr. Laxton also informs me that he has seen 

 a Eed Warrington gooseberry bearing both red and yellow fruit on the 

 same branch. 



Currant {Ribes rubrum). — A bush purchased as the Champagne, which is 

 a variety that bears blush-coloured fruit intermediate between red and 

 white, produced during fourteen years, on separate branches and mingled 

 on the same branch, berries of the red, white, and champagne kinds. 10 

 The suspicion naturally arises that this variety may have originated from 

 a cross between a red and white variety, and that the above transforma- 

 tion may be accounted for by reversion to both parent-forms ; but from 

 the foregoing complex case of the gooseberry this view is doubtful. In 

 France, a branch of a red-currant bush, about ten years old, produced 

 near the summit five white berries, and lower down, amongst the red 

 berries, one berry half red and half white. 11 Alexander Braun 12 also has 

 often seen branches bearing red berries on white currants. 



Pear (Pyrus communis).— Bureau de la Malle states that the flowers 

 on some trees of an ancient variety, the doyenne galeux, were destroyed by 

 frost : other flowers appeared in July, which produced six pears ; these 

 exactly resembled in their skin and taste the fruit of a distinct variety, 

 the gros doyenne blanc, but in shape were like the bon-chretien : it was not 

 ascertained whether this new variety could be propagated by budding or 

 grafting. The same author grafted a bon-chretien on a quince, and it 

 produced, besides its proper fruit, an apparently new variety, of a peculiar 

 form, with thick and rough skin. 13 



Apple (Pyrus mains).— In Canada, a tree of the variety called Pound 

 Sweet, produced, 14 between two of its proper fruit, an apple which was 

 well russetted, small in size, different in shape, and with a short peduncle. 

 As no russet apple grew anywhere near, this case apparently cannot be 

 accounted for by the direct action of foreign pollen. I shall hereafter give 



9 'Gardener's Chronicle,' 1855 pp 

 597, 612. 



10 * Gardener's Chron.,' 1842, p. 873 ; 

 1855, p. 646. In the • Chronicle,' 1866', 

 p. 876, Mr. P. Mackenzie states that 

 the bush still continues to bear the 

 three kinds of fruit, "although they 

 have not been every year alike." 



1 1 ' "Revue Horticole, ' quoted in ' G ard. 



■Bot. 



Chronicle,' 1844, p. 87. 



12 ' Kejuvenescence in Nature/ 

 Memoirs Kay Soc.,' 1853, p. 314. 



13 ' Comptes Eendus,' torn, xli., 1855, 

 p. 804. The second case is given on the 

 authority of Gaudichaud, idem, torn. 

 xxxiv., 1852, p. 748. 



14 This case is given in the 'Gard. 

 Chronicle,' 1867, p. 403. 



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;; 5 fruits 



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