POMOLOGY AS A STUDY. 



149 



Obviously in the case of trees and plants grown entirely out of doors 

 the effects of weather and season will usually be paramount, either help- 

 ing or counteracting the cultivator's efforts. In the formation of buds on 

 our principal fruit trees, such as Apples, Pears, Plums, Cherries, &c, the 

 weather of May, June, and July has a great influence. For example, 

 in Bedfordshire, in the year 1898, fruit trees flowered and fruited in a 

 remarkable manner ; many trees which had not given a sign of fruit before 

 had quite a good crop, and some of the varieties which are always sparse 

 and irregular fruiters were similarly satisfactory. This was in a large 

 measure accounted for by the weather of May to July both in 1897 and in 

 1896, conditions that favoured leaf production and action followed by an 

 early maturing. 



Two questions have repeatedly been asked me in connection with 

 flower-bud formation which are very difficult to answer, and which are 

 worth some definite experimental research to determine. One is : 



" Are fruit-tree buds essentially growth and flower-buds from their 

 first formation ? " 



The other is a somewhat similar inquiry in a different form, viz. : 



" Is it possible when buds are forming to cause (by treatment or 

 weather influences) their development as flower-buds ? " 



The theoretical origin of flowers is of course well understood now, and 

 we often see strange transformations of floral organs into foliaceous produc- 

 tions ; but does the reverse take place ? Is there a stage up to which a bud is 

 neutral, as it were, and is its development then by some external cause 

 sufficiently influenced to become so greatly differentiated in its parts as 

 takes place in a flower ? I confess that this is a question upon which I am 

 not prepared to give a definite reply, though I have been accumulating 

 evidence for some years, much of which points to the conclusion that such 

 changes do occasionally take place. It is invested with considerable interest, 

 however, and is well worthy of investigation. 



2. Problems in Fertilisation and Sterility. — An important stage in the 

 life-history of a fruit is reached when the two elements of the flower are 

 developed and the period of expansion is approaching. Apart from the 

 fact that adverse weather-influences counteract all the good work which 

 has preceded the production of flowers, there may still be something 

 wanted to complete the fertilisation and ensure the perfection of the 

 fruit. 



The majority of fruits in this country are members of the great rosa- 

 ceous family, which includes so many useful and beautiful garden plants. 

 They are furnished both with the staminate and pistillate elements in 

 an advanced and strongly developed form. Yet a very moderate amount 

 of observation directed to the behaviour of cultivated Apples, Tears, 

 Peaches, Plums, and Strawberries will show that there is often a marked 

 tendency to a unisexual condition in some varieties, due to one or other 

 of the elements being imperfectly developed or entirely suppressed. This 

 has at times an important bearing upon practical success. It may some 

 times arise from internal or inherited defects in the individual plants, but 

 more frequently it is due to soil, climatic, or weather influences. Professor 

 George Henslow has given numerous examples of this phenomenon in a 

 chapter on "Sexuality and Environment" in his interesting work on 



