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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



noticed in the Long Green Cucumber, which increased in 1897 until it 

 resembled the Crook-necked Squash in shape ; afterwards this tendency 

 disappeared, giving place to thicker fruits with white spines. 



5. Seeds of the same stock, equally well grown under precisely the 

 same conditions, differ in adherence to type in different seasons ; e.g. the 

 1893 crop of Green Globe Savoy gave more evenly typical plants and 

 heads than any subsequent crop of the same strain, grown by the same 

 grower, in the same field. 



6. Seeds of individual plants, of the same pedigree, grown under the 

 same conditions, and equally adherent to type, differ in prepotency or 

 ability to reproduce themselves ; e.g. in a field of Beauty Tomato (of which 

 every plant was from seed of an ideal plant, selected the previous year 

 under similar conditions) five ideal plants were selected, indistinguishable 

 from one another : seed from these individuals was sown separately, and 

 the result was that the offspring of one plant was inferior, of another 

 superior, and of the rest intermediate in quality. From this it follows 

 that the only way to secure a high degree of uniformity and excellence in 

 a race of vegetables is to select not only one ideal plant but one that has 

 the ability to reproduce itself ; its descendants must be multiplied until 

 the entire stock is the lineal descendant of that individual plant. 



Improvement of the Sugar-cane, by Selection and Cross- 

 fertilisation. By Sir Daniel Morris, K.C.M.G., of the West 



Indies. 



The problem to be solved in behalf of the Sugar-cane planter of the 

 West Indies is described by Sir Daniel Morris as : — (1) An increase of 

 weight of cane per acre ; (2) a higher sugar content ; (3) freedom of 

 canes from diseases and pests. To secure these the following methods 

 of search have been adopted : — (a) Testing of selected canes from other 

 countries ; more than sixty named varieties of canes have been tested 

 from all parts with no striking or definite results, (b) Experimental 

 cultivation of bud sports. Apparently only striped or ribbon canes give 

 rise to coloured bud sports, and these may occur on a part of one cane or 

 on a whole cane of a stool. These bud sports tend to come true to colour. 

 Experiments with these in the West Indies are not yet completed, but 

 others report that "most of the sports seem to be hardier than their 

 parents and yield more sugar." " Yellow sports have a tendency to grow 

 sweeter than the coloured canes of the kindred variety." " The sugar 

 contents of sports are fully equal to those of the ribbon and purple canes, 

 over which they have as yet no pronounced excellencies." (c) Chemical 

 selection of tops from individual canes or from stools with high sugar 

 value. As the richest canes are simply those that are ripest and well 

 nourished, the advantages of this method seems to be very doubtful. 

 {<!) By raising seedling varieties, by selection and cross-fertilisation. The 

 effective discovery of seed in the Sugar-cane was only made in 1888, but 

 seedling canes are now numerous. The difficulties of securing fertile seed 

 are, however, very great. Many canes never flower, and out of several 

 thousand spikelets only ten to thirty fertile seeds are usually cbtained. 

 Owing to the minuteness of the flowers, the ordinary methods of fertilisa- 



