CHAPTER IV. 



EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF POLLEN ON THE CHARACTER 



OF THE FRUIT. 



It lias long been a matter of discussion among botanists and liorticul- 

 turists as to whether different kinds of pollen could produce immediate 

 differences in the characteristics of the resulting fruits. Most of the 

 fruits from the Rochester and Geneva series were studied in this con- 

 nection. Through the kindness of Messrs. Ellwanger& Barry the fruits 

 from the former place were sent to the laboratory, where they were photo- 

 graphed, weighed, and outlined, and tlie seeds examined, counted, and 

 weighed. Mr. Fairchild secured most of the fruits from the Geneva 

 experiments, and also sent them to the Department for study. He was 

 the first to observe the decided differences between the cross and 

 self-pollinated Buffum pears, and communicated the interesting dis- 

 covery to me by letter early in the summer. On August 20 the Ell- 

 wanger & Barry orchard was visited by the writer and notable differ- 

 ences were observed between the cross and self-pollinated fruits. 

 Therefore it was planned to study these fruits carefully as they 

 matured. The reader will see later on that the results of this study 

 strengthen and confirm some of the points made in the preceding 

 pages. It was not the original purpose of these investigations to 

 study the immediate effect of different kinds of pollen on the fruit, and 

 no special attention has been given to this general subject by the 

 writer. An extended discussion of the question, therefore, will not be 

 attempted. Instead of this a minute description of the differences 

 observed in my experiments will be given. An excellent summary of 

 the whole subject has recently been published by W. W. Munson,* and 

 to this the reader who wishes to proceed further on the subject is 

 referred. 



For more than one hundred years the question of the immediate 

 influence of pollen has been discussed by botanists and horticulturists 

 without reaching very satisfactory conclusions. In recent years it 

 has been demonstrated that i)ollen causes changes the first year in cer- 

 tain i)lants. Indian corn, the pea, and the kidney bean are among 

 tliose which show the most striking differences. It should be noted 

 that in these cases the i)rincipal part of the fruit is the seed, and it is 

 in this that the striking differences are developed. In tomatoes and 

 English cucumbers, and also among citrous fruits, differences have been 

 shown to occur that involve the whole fruit. The fleshy ovary in these 

 plants forms the conspicuous part of the fruit. In the pome fruits and 



* Secondary elfccts of polliuatiou, Auiiiial Report of Maine State College, 1892, 

 pp. 29-58. 



