In Tasmania Mr. Wade ('Transact. New Zealand Institute' volume 4 1871 page 431) raised seedlings of the Siberian Bitter Sweet for stocks, and he found barely one per cent of them attacked by the coccus. Riley shows ('Fifth Report on Insects of Missouri' 1873 page 87) that in the United States some varieties of apples are highly attractive to the coccus and others very little so. Turning to a very different pest, namely, the caterpillar of a moth (Carpocapsa pomonella), Walsh affirms ('The American Entomologist' April 1869 page 160) that the maiden-blush "is entirely exempt from apple-worms." So, it is said, are some few other varieties; whereas others are "peculiarly subject to the attacks of this little pest.") states that in an orchard in Norfolk infested with these insects the Majetin was quite free, though the stock on which it was grafted was affected: Knight makes a similar statement with respect to a cider apple, and adds that he only once saw these insects just above the stock, but that three days afterwards they entirely disappeared; this apple, however, was raised from a cross between the Golden Harvey and the Siberian Crab; and the latter, I believe, is considered by some authors as specifically distinct.
The famous St. Valery apple must not be passed over; the flower has a double calyx with ten divisions, and fourteen styles surmounted by conspicuous oblique stigmas, but is destitute of stamens or corolla. The fruit is constricted round the middle, and is formed of five seed-cells, surmounted by nine other cells. (10/94. 'Mem. de La Soc. Linn. de Paris' tome 3 1825 page 164; and Seringe 'Bulletin Bot.' 1830 page 117.) Not being provided with stamens, the tree requires artificial fertilisation; and the girls of St. Valery annually go to "faire ses pommes," each marking her own fruit with a ribbon; and as different pollen is used the fruit differs, and we here have an instance of the direct action of foreign pollen on the mother plant. These monstrous apples include, as we have seen, fourteen seed-cells; the pigeon-apple (10/95. Gardener's Chronicle' 1849 page 24.) on the other hand, has only four, instead of, as with all common apples, five cells; and this certainly is a remarkable difference.
In the catalogue of apples published in 1842 by the Horticultural Society, 897 varieties are enumerated; but the differences between most of them are of comparatively little interest, as they are not strictly inherited. No one can raise, for instance, from the seed of the Ribston Pippin, a tree of the same kind; and it is said that the "Sister Ribston Pippin" was a white semi-transparent, sour-fleshed apple, or rather large crab. (10/96. R. Thompson, in 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1850 page 788.) Yet it was a mistake to suppose that with most varieties the characters are not to a certain extent inherited. In two lots of seedlings raised from two well-marked kinds, many worthless crab-like seedlings will appear, but it is now known that the two lots not only usually differ from each other, but resemble to a certain extent their parents. We see this indeed in the several sub-groups of Russetts, Sweetings, Codlins, Pearmains, Reinettes, etc. (10/97. Sageret 'Pomologie Physiologique' 1830 page 263. Downing 'Fruit Trees' pages 130, 134, 139, etc. Loudon's 'Gardener's Mag.' volume 8 p. 317. Alexis Jordan 'De l'Origine des diverses Varietes' in 'Mem. de l'Acad. Imp. de Lyon' tome 2 1852 pages 95, 114. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1850 pages 774, 788.), which are all believed, and many are known, to be descended from other varieties bearing the same names.
PEARS (Pyrus communis).
I need say little on this fruit, which varies much in the wild state, and to an extraordinary degree when cultivated, in its fruit, flowers, and foliage. One of the most celebrated botanists in Europe, M. Decaisne, has carefully studied the many varieties (10/98. 'Comptes Rendus' July 6, 1863.); although he formerly believed that they were derived from more than one species, he now thinks that all belong to one.