FRUIT BLOSSOMS 
403 
swamps, and woodlands. The inverted um- 
shaped flowers, with .concealed nectar, are 
adapted to pollination by bees, among 
which the honeybee is common; but in re¬ 
mote and obscure localities the wild bees 
are often the chief visitors. 
It Avas long supposed that blueberries 
could not be domesticated; but Coville has 
recently shown that they will grow in an 
acid soil, and thrive best in one composed 
of peat and sand. In southeastern New 
Jersey there are thousands of acres of 
peaty well-watered pine barrens now un¬ 
used for agriculture, but which are well 
adapted to growing blueberries. When the 
A. Self-pollinated blueberries. B. Cross-pollin¬ 
ated blueberries. These two twigs (reduced one- 
half) bore the same number of flowers, and were 
pollinated at the same time by hand. But A was 
pollinated with pollen from other floWers on the 
same bush, and B with pollen from another bush. 
The self-pollinated flowers produced no ripe fruit, 
nil the berries that set remaining small and green 
and later dropping off; while the cross-pollinated 
flowers produced a full cluster of large berries. 
A plantation made wholly of cuttings from a single 
bush would produce little or no fruit. (From 
Coville.) 
bushes are grown in rich garden soil they 
are small and dwarfed. Microscopic ex¬ 
amination shows that there is on the roots 
a minute fungus, without the assistance of 
which the plants appear unable to nourish 
themselves properly. This fungus requires 
an acid soil. 
Blueberry bushes are propagated from 
cuttings rooted by a special method, as 
they do not come true to seed. C are must 
be taken to select only plants which pro¬ 
duce berries with a good flavor, as some 
wild blueberries are sour or even bitter. A 
blueberry plantation will come into bear¬ 
ing in about four years, and, once well es¬ 
tablished, will last a lifetime. Blueberries 
have already been produced of the size and 
color of Concord grapes. 
When blueberry flowers were self-polli¬ 
nated, only a few berries and seeds were 
produced, altho the self-pollinations were 
made very carefully by hand. , On some 
bushes not a berry matured. Berries that 
resulted from self-pollination were smaller 
and later in ripening than cross-pollinated 
berries from the same bush. Neither will 
plants raised from cuttings taken from a 
single bush pollinate each other success¬ 
fully, but the pollen acts the same as tho 
taken from different flowers on one bush. 
Coville says: “From these experiments it 
became clear that if a blueberry-grower 
should set out a whole field with plants 
from cuttings of a single choice bush his 
plantation would be practically fruitless. 
The best procedure is to make 
up the plantation with alternating rows of 
plants pi’opagated from two choice varie¬ 
ties. Each will then set fruit in abundance 
thru pollination by the other.” In such a 
plantation bees will not be merely benefi¬ 
cial but indispensable. 
THE POLLINATION OF FRUIT TREES. 
THE PLUM. 
The cultivated plums may be divided into 
three groups according to their origin: The 
European, the Japanese, and the American. 
Familiar varieties of European plums 
(Prunus domestica and P. insititia ) are the 
Yellow Egg, Bradshaw, Lombard, German 
Prune, Damson, and Green Gage; of the 
Japanese plum (P. triflora), Burbank, 
Abundance, and Red June; and of Ameri¬ 
can plums, the wild plum (P. americana ), 
the Canada plum (P. nigra), and the Wild- 
goose plum (P. hortulana ). All the species, 
according to Waugh, hybridize, the Japan¬ 
ese plums crossing easily with the Ameri¬ 
can, but the European and American va¬ 
rieties cross with difficulty. It is believed 
that hybrids of great value will eventually 
be obtained. The plum has also been crossed 
with the peach, cherry, and apricot. 
The pollination of plum trees is a matter 
of great economic importance. “When the 
native plum trees first began to be culti- 
