The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1884-06-04

SHOWS OF the North will suffer no change
any more than the white man under the
burning sun of Africa. The giant will
procure his stature amid the most cruel
want, and the dwarf will never change
his proportions, though supplied with
the most nourishing food. Nature has
determined the forms OF all beings; she
has fixed the principles of their organi-
zation in the embryo, and nothing can
alter them. They resist every force that
surrounds them, and ever preserve, amid
the continual variation of nourishment
and soil, the original impress received
from the hand of Nature.
ART. y.-The reproduction of plants by
the seed.
The seed is the only source of varie-
ties in vegetables 1t is only by this
means that nature effects those wonder
full transformations every day witnessed
but too little understood. The majority
of cultivators acknowledge this fact; and
even those who attribute beautiful vari-
eties to culture, also agree that many
are furnished by the seed.
We propose, by the following expert
ments recorded by "a French naturalist
OF great experience, to show the results
OF reproduction by seed.
Experiment Ii sowed, during several
years, seeds Of the china orange (citrus
durGntium sinense,) of fine shining
skin. l always obtained sweet orange
trees, of which part bore oranges of
thick rough skin, and part beautiful
fruit of skin still finer than the original
which furnished the seed. The same
=
oranges of thick ami rough skin-there
grew up several trees of beautiful fruit,
and one stock, whose leaves were like
shells in shape, but the fruit very ordi
nary and seeds few, ard even those very
poor.
made the SANG experiment with the
peach tree; seeds from peaches borne
on the same gavSEf yeral varieties, for
few finer than theAf{iginal planted; but
the stones neyeit.I .Igaye qliaas- 7taaee.
st.eeS S5Tthe SANS result.
Sweet almonds spTSks feed only sweet al
mond trees. TherSsyas some difference
in the hardness of The shell, but / never
obtained single bitter almond.
department Ill sowed seeds Of the
red orange Citrus si,rdntium sinense,
hierochunticum, .fructt sanguineo). The
trees which came fim these produced
only ordinary fruit ol orange color.
Experiment III.-1sowed lemon seeds
taken from fruit gathered in a garden
where lemon and ciron trees grew to-
gether, and obtained'many trees, whose
fruit presented series OF varieties, from
the lemon to the po1eire, but the larger
part of them were simple lemons. Those
having the characteristics of the poncire
produced no seeds.
Experiment l IV.-Dlring a long series
of years / sowed seeds of the sweet
orange, sometimes tal;en from seedlings,
sometimes from seedlings grated on a
sour orange stock OF lemon stock, but
always obtained sweet oranges. This
result is confined bylall the gardeners of
Finale(a small town ii the north of italy,
for more than sixty Wears. There is no
example of sour or;zoge produced from
a sweet seed, nor of 8 sweet orange pro-
duced from sour seta.
From these experiments are obtained
the following conclusions:
Consequence I.-The seed perpetuates
the species and is thesource of varieties.
1t produces more frequently varieties
inferior to the mothet plant; sometimes,
however, those superior to it. 1t never
departs from the species unless the fe-
cundation of another species gives it the
germ of hybrid. t(Exp. l and Ill }
This occurs equally in the seed of the
Seeding and that of the grated tree.
The trees which come from them repro
duce, the same species which gave the
seed, aside from the modification of va
rieties noticed above. (Exp. IV.)
Consequence little seeds of mon
sters, when they are found, produce only
ordinary fruit, which indicates that this
extraordinary fruit is only variety and
that the variety returns to the type in
the seed. exp. H.
Consequence III.-The seeds of the
sweet orange produce. only sweet orange
trees; sour orange seeds produce only
sour orange trees. These two orange
trees are preserved and perpetuated by
the seed, and are, therefore, distinct
species. The ordinary peach never pro-
duces the cling-stone, nor the cling-stone
the ordinary peach, and hence they are
two distinct species, and cannot degene-
ate from the one to the other. The same
is true of the sweet and bitter almond.
exp. l. and IV.)
Consequence little seeds Of lemons
growing in garden where lemon and
citron trees grew together, produced
poncires. This fruit is, therefore, prob
ably hybrid of the citron, the absence
of seeds showing that it is due to for
! eign formulation. exp. III.