MR. J. STANDISH — HINTS ON HYBRIDIZING FRUITS. 135 



XXIV. Hints on Hybridizing Fruits. 

 By John Standish, Eoyal Nursery, Ascot, Berks. 



Having been occupied for many years in hybridizing plants, and 

 being very fond of it, I at length turned my attention to fruits : 

 I commenced with grapes. 



My object was to make the Muscat easier to cultivate, and in- 

 crease the size of the Frontignan ; also to make the large coarse 

 kinds of a better flavour, and to improve the early ones. 



I began, in the first instance, with the Muscat of Alexandria 

 (one of the most difficult grapes to cultivate) and the Trouveren 

 Muscat (a remarkably free grower, but a long time in coming to 

 maturity). It is a most delicious grape, though not so highly 

 musked as the former. I expected to obtain grapes less difficult 

 to cultivate, and was partly right ; but I was rather astonished 

 at the final results. It should be premised that the Trouveren is 

 a round grape ; the Muscat of Alexandria an oval one. The latter 

 I made the female parent ; and out of thirty seedlings no two 

 were alike. The first three that fruited were black, one being a 

 large early grape, in shape an oval, with a fruit-stalk like a piece 

 of wire ; it was of a very fine flavour, with the slighest possible 

 taste of Muscat, and hung well. This was a great success and 

 well worth all my trouble. The other two were late ones, with 

 large round berries, but nothing else remarkable about them. In 

 the following year I fruited ten or twelve more from the same lot. 

 One of these was of a beautiful white or golden colour, and ripened 

 quite as soon as the Hambro' ; its fine vinous flavour was exquisite, 

 mingled as it was with a Muscat taste about half as strong as that 

 of its parents. This also had very stiff fruit-stalks, and kept a very 

 long time. Another, and this astonished me more than anything 

 else, was a perfect miniature of the Muscat of Alexandria, per- 

 fectly oval, and with the strongest Muscat flavour that I ever 

 tasted, but it was no larger than a red currant ! I have not as yet 

 discovered anything very remarkable among the others. The 

 next experiment I tried was with General Marmora (no doubt a 

 white seedling variety of the Hambro') crossed by Burchart's 

 Amber Cluster. My object was to obtain a very early grape ; and 

 in this I succeeded beyond my expectations, as I got a very fine 

 white transparent grape like the Amber Cluster, but as large as 

 the Hambro', and fully five weeks earlier than that kind. This 

 of course is a great gain, and what has been much wanted, as the 

 sweetwater grapes are very bad setters, and the Muscadine is too 



