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V. Observations on the accidental Intermixture of Character 

 in certain Fruits. By Mr. John Turner, F.L. S. Assistant 

 Secretary. 



Read January 16, 1820. 



In the course of the two last seasons, several specimens of 

 fruits came within my observation, in which a deviation from 

 their true character was very perceptible. In remarking on 

 the evident intermixture of colour, form, and flavour, which 

 some of these fruits presented, I did not hesitate to ascribe it 

 to the farina of one variety having come in contact with the 

 flowers of another at the moment when the stigmas were in 

 a proper condition to receive it : and on mentioning my 

 opinion, was surprised to find that the fact of such intermix- 

 ture producing an immediate change in the fruit was generally 

 doubted, and by many persons pronounced to be impossible. 

 This led me to enquire whether the subject had ever before 

 engaged the attention of horticulturists, and, not to go further 

 back than the beginning of the last century (though both 

 Tiieopiirastus and Pliny* seem to allude to it), I found 

 that the notion was entertained by Bradley, who, in his 

 New Iniprorewcnfs in Planting and G ardcning,-f after giving 

 directions for fertilizing the female flowers of the Hazel with 

 the pollen of the male, says, — " By this knowledge we may 

 alter the property and taste of any fruit, by impregnating the 

 one with the farina of another of the same class, as, for exam- 



* Theophrast. Hist. Plant, i. ii. c. 4.— Plinii Hist. Nat.l. xvii. c. 25. 

 f Second Edit, page 22. 



