Chap. Xf. MALE ELEMENT ON THE MOTHER FORM. 



401 



that the organs of vegetation in hybrid plants, independently of the character 

 of either parent, are sometimes developed to a monstrous size • and the 

 increased size of the pods in the foregoing cases may be an analogous fact. 

 No case of the direct action of the pollen of one variety on another is 

 better authenticated or more remarkable than that of the common apple. 

 The fruit here consists of the lower part of the calyx and of the upper part 

 of the flower-peduncle 13 ° in a metamorphosed condition, so that the effect 

 of the foreign pollen has extended even beyond the limits of the ovarium. 

 Cases of apples thus affected were recorded by Bradley in the early part 

 of the last century; and other cases are given in old volumes of the 

 Philosophical Transactions ; m in one of these a Eusseting apple and an 

 adjoining kind mutually affected each other's fruit ; and in another case 

 a smooth apple affected a rough-coated kind. Another instance has been 

 given 132 of two very different apple-trees growing close to each other, 

 which bore fruit resembling each other, but only on the adjoining branches. 

 It is, however, almost superfluous to adduce these or other cases, after 

 that of the St. Valery apple, which, from the abortion of the stamens, does 

 not produce pollen, but, being annually fertilised by the girls of the neigh- 

 bourhood with pollen of many kinds, bears fruit, " differing from each 

 other in size, flavour, and colour, but resembling in character the 

 hermaphrodite kinds by which they have been fertilised." 133 



I have now shown, on the authority of several excellent 

 observers, in the case of plants belonging to widely different 

 orders, that the pollen of one species or variety, when applied to 

 a distinct form, occasionally causes the coats of the seeds and 

 the ovarium or fruit, including even in one instance the calyx 

 and upper part of the peduncle of the mother-plant, to become 

 modified. Sometimes the whole of the ovarium or all the seeds 

 are thus affected ; sometimes only a certain number of the seeds, 

 as in the case of the pea, or only a part of the ovarium, as with 

 the striped orange, mottled grapes and maize, are thus affected- 

 It must not be supposed that any direct or immediate effect 

 invariably follows the use of foreign pollen: this is far from 

 being the case ; nor is it known on what conditions the result 

 depends. Mr. Knight 134 expressly states that he has never seen 

 the fruit thus affected, though he has crossed thousands of apple 



130 See on this head the high authority 

 of Prof. Decaisne, in a paper translated 

 in. ' Proc. Hort. Soc.,' vol. i. new series, 

 1866, p. 48. 



131 Vol. xliii., 1744-45, p. 525; vol. 

 xlv., 1747-48, p. 602. 



^ 132 ' Transact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. v. pp. 

 63 and 68. Puvis also has collected 

 ('De la Degeneration,' 1837, p. 36) 

 VOL. I. 



several other instances ; but it is not in 

 all cases possible to distinguish between 

 the direct action of foreign pollen and 

 bud-variations. 



133 T. de Clermont-Tonnerre, in 

 ' Mem. de la Soc. Linn, de Paris,' torn. 

 Hi., 1825, p. 164. 



134 ' Transact, of Hort. Soc.,' vol. v. p. 

 68. 



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