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photo  EdeTco, 
VOL.  LI.  No  2191. 
NEW  YORK,  JANUARY  23,  1892. 
PRICE,  FIVE  CENTS 
$2 .00  PER  YEAR. 
Tomatoes. 
Reversions  of  cross-bred  tomatoes  as  shown  by  the  “Sta¬ 
tion.”  Peach  Tomato  crosses.  Variety  tests. 
NOTF.8  FROM  THK  RURAL  GROUNDS. 
In  disconnected  parts  the  story  of  the  reversion  of 
Goff’s  Station  Tomato  has  been  told  in  these  columns 
from  time  to  time.  The  photographic  illustrations 
now  placed  before  the  reader  may  enable  him  to  under¬ 
stand,  better  than  words  could  tell,  what  the  rever¬ 
sions  actually  amounted  to. 
Mr.  Goff,  then  of  the  New  York  Experiment  Station, 
succeeded  in  making  a  cross  between  the  Alpha  and 
the  Upright  or  Bush — Tomate  de  Laye.  Seeds  of  the 
crossbreed  were  sown  here  about  four  years  ago- 
About  half  of  the  plants  were  Uprights— the  other 
100  plants  were  transplanted — half  of  each — the  rest 
were  destroyed.  Any  one  ignorant  of  the  history  of 
the  “  Station”  Tomato,  as  Prof.  Goff  named  his  cross, 
and  of  our  own  selections  since  would  reasonably  infer 
that  his  seeds  were  mixed  or  that  it  was  a  most  curious 
case  of  “sporting,”  while  to  those  who  know  its  his¬ 
tory  it  appears  simply  an  interesting  and  instructive 
case  of  reversion.  There  were  no  intermediate  plants 
among  the  20.  The  fruit  varied  as  will  he  seen,  but 
the  plants  were  either  of  the  Dwarf  Tree  sort  or  of  the 
branching,  loose  habit  of  the  ordinary  kinds  in  cultiva¬ 
tion.  What  were  the  causes  producing  this  reversion? 
How  much  does  it  help  us  to  account  for  it,  as  did 
Darwin,  Naudin  and  others  on  the  grounds  of  a  dis- 
association  of  mixed  elements  and  a  reversion  to  the 
characteristics  possessed  by  one  or  the  other  of  its 
much  larger  than  the  Fig  Tomato — not  so  large  as  the 
ordinary  Pear,  King  Humbert  or  Wonder  of  Italy.  By 
reference  to  the  half-sections,  Figs.  29  and  30,  it  will 
be  seen  that  the  walls  are  exceedingly  thick  with  but 
two  well-defined  cells.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the 
pear-shaped  tomato,  as  shown  at  Fig.  34  in  half-section 
and  at  28  entire,  in  the  engravings.  Fig.  33,  though 
nearly  round  has  but  two  cells,  while  Figs.  31  and  32 
have  four  or  more  cells  with  thick  parietal  walls. 
Many  others  were  angular,  that  is,  inclined  to  be  four¬ 
sided  ;  others  were  lobed  and  irregular  like  the  Hun¬ 
dred  Day,  Victor  or  Conqueror.  In  quality  these 
tomatoes  were  not  of  tho  best.  There  were  too  many 
cavities,  too  many  and  too  large  seeds,  while  the  fleshy 
walls  were  often  hard  or  “eorey.”  They  were  less 
acid  than  ordinary  tomatoes — in  fact,  many  of  them 
Fig.  23.  Fig.  24.  Fig. 
Fig.  20.  Fig.  27. 
REVERSIONS  OF  GOFF’S  STATION  TOMA 
half,  of  the  ordinary  sort  like  the  Alpha.  A  single 
tomato  was  saved  from  the  latter.  The  seeds  gave  us 
a  dozen  plants  all  of  which  were  like  the  Alpha  in 
foliage  and  habit,  though  the  fruit  varied.  We  as¬ 
sumed  that  the  habit  was  fixed  and  that  from  further 
selections  the  Upright  form  would  be  unlikely  to  ap¬ 
pear  again.  In  1890  we  again  saved  seeds  from  a  single 
fruit  of  these  Alpha  plants,  which  were  sown  in  the 
spring  of  1891.  About  100  plants  grew,  which  seemed 
to  be  when  but  two  or  three  inches  tall  about  half  of 
each.  The  Tomate  de  Laye  or  Upright  shows  its 
peculiarities  from  the  first  leaves,  and  as  growth  pro¬ 
ceeds  the  stem  is  thrice  as  thick  as  that  of  the  ordinary 
kinds,  while  the  leaves  are  close  together  and  as 
curled  and  crinkly  as  when  in  fruit.  About  20  of  these 
ancestors  more  or  less  remote  ?  Similar  cases  of  re¬ 
version  have  often  occun*ed  among  the  rye- wheat  hy¬ 
brids  produced  by  the  writer  years  ago.  Time  and 
again  it  was  assumed  that  certain  remarkable  varieties 
seeming  to  be  neither  wheat  nor  rye  were  fixed,  when 
the  seed  would  the  next  year,  it  may  be,  break  into 
scores  of  differently  constructed  heads,  most  of  which 
were  distinctly  wheat — although  never  distinctly  rye. 
Figs.  23,  24,  25,  26,  27  and  28,  show  fruits  from  the 
Goff’s  Station  Tomato  raised  last  season  from  seed 
selected  from  year  to  year  as  above  described.  They 
were  among  the  largest  found.  There  were  many  pear- 
shaped  and  plum-shaped  specimens  only  half  as  large 
as  those  shown— the  “plum,”  Fig.  25;  the  pear,  Figs. 
26  and  28.  In  fact  these  smaller  specimens  were  not 
Fig.  28. 
TO. 
were  perceptibly  though  not,  to  the  writer,  agreeably 
sweet.  Among  100  or  more  crosses  made  last  summer 
a  dozen  or  more  of  these  were  made  the  mother  plants. 
Peach.  Tomato  Crosses. 
Not  until  rather  late  for  such  work  did  it  occur  to 
us  that  something  might  come  out  of  a  cross  with  the 
pretty  Peach  Tomato.  It  is  pretty.  We  have  seen 
half  a  dozen  of  our  white  ‘  ‘  sport  ”  and  the  same  num¬ 
ber  of  the  ordinary  pink  Peach  placed  on  a  glass  fruit 
dish  together  and  they  certainly  resembled  peaches 
more  than  tomatoes. 
Pollen  was  gathered  from  Ignotum,  Prelude,  the 
Potato-leaf,  Optimus  or  any  other  of  the  kinds,  being 
tested  during  the  season  of  1890,  (no  attempt  was  made 
