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ROYAL nOKTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 
well as the skins. The flavour is rich and sweet, of the most 
agreeable character, not in any way peculiar, yet refreshing and 
pleasant to the palate. 
The Black Monukka is termed a seedless grape. It is so, how- 
ever, only so far as the seeds remain immature. The seeds are 
formed, yet from some cause they are not perfected. This failing 
may perhaps in some measure account for the smallness of the 
berry. The peculiarity may possibly be due to defective setting. 
"Were the seeds perfected and fully-grown, as in other grapes, the 
berries would perhaps be larger. Whether this is so or not, how- 
ever, to alter its peculiar character in this respect would certainly 
not improve it. There is something very novel and quite pleasing 
in eating grapes without being troubled with either skins or seeds. 
With the view of being able to introduce some of the desirable 
qualities of the Black Monukka into our most approved sorts, or of 
raising a good large-berried grape of a seedless character, such as a 
seedless Black Hamburgh, it was proposed to try the effect of 
hybridization. 
The necessary and proper precautions being taken to ensure 
success, a few flowers each of the Black Hamburgh, Muscat of 
Alexandria and Royal Muscadine were fertilised successfully with 
pollen from the Black Monukka. Unfortunately, in thinning the 
grapes the few fertilised berries of the two latter were cut off and 
so lost. But from the Black Hamburgh some 25 seeds were 
secured. The reverse of all these crosses was tried also, viz., 
using the Black Monukka as the female, but without success. 
Several half-formed seeds were secured from the Black Monukka, 
more fully- developed than in their usual normal condition, but 
they refused to vegetate. 
From the 25 seeds of the cross between the Black Monukka as 
the male and the Black Hamburgh as the female, 22 plants have 
been raised, 15 of which have fruited. 
The first noticeable fact is the foliage. The leaves and shoots of 
the whole set more closely resemble that of the male parent than 
the female. The leaves are all deeply lobed and sharply serrated, 
like the Black Monukka, the leaf-stalks red and hairy, as well as 
the young shoots. The plants bear no resemblance whatever to 
the Black Hamburgh ; by the foliage they would be grouped as 
four distinct varieties. 
In the fruit they are widely different of the 15 which have 
fruited ; eight of them have the berries white, and five have the 
berries black ; six have long or ovate berries, and seven have the 
