The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-03-22
MARKING OF LUSCIOUS FRUITS

I tricks with plants have recently evolved a
new kind of cherry tree. which seems to be
the cherry tree of the future.
Instead of bearing fruit in the ordinary
fashion, by twos and threes. 1t produces
them in large and dense clusters. 50 that
, fifty or sixty cherries sometimes grow In q
single bunch on a twig. The cherries, too,
are big and OF remarkably fine flavor.
One Of the most notable of recent achieve
ments in this line is the seedless grape.
which has at last been successfully pro-
duced in California.
There is an excellent commercial oppor-
tunity for it. inasmuch as many people OBJ
ject to grapes on account OF their seeds,
apart entirely from the fear Of swallowing
them. which has been mistakenly caused
by the appendicitis fad.
Many of the finest varieties of grapes. es-
pecially those Of the "meaty" sort. have
very large seeds. which on account Of their
| size are really Objectionable.
II they can be got rid of entirely. that
will be highly satisfactory: and one seed
less grape having been secured. 1t may be
confidently expected that there will be
others.
The seedless grape was obtained from
the muscat of Alexandria Imported from
Egypt by selecting year after year cut
ting from those vines which produced less
than the normal number Of seeds.
This process was continued from season
to season until absolute seedlessness was
eventually achieved. The special object in
view was TO get a raisin grape of large
size. Everybody is familiar with the little
dried grapes of Corinth. which are COM
monty known as currants; they are seed
less, but have the disadvantage Of small
size.
The new California grape. on the other
hand will have favor equal to that of the
! currant. while relatively giant
The SCedieaS annie IL likely to arrivA in
the near future.
The plant makers are working on the
problem patiently. Indeed, that kind Of
work pays well, inasmuch as there is al
ways fortune in any new seedless fruit.
Fortunately. the banana is already seed
less. ard has been so for centuries. though
nobody knows why.
BANANA IS A
MODIFIED BERRY.
1t is propagated by suckers. and possibly
it had no seeds when it was first found in
the wild state. The banana is a modified
berry. Cutting the fruit down through the
middle, you will sometimes see few little
brown spots. which are rudimentary seeds;
but occasionally the banana does actually
produce seeds.
The pineapple Is nearly seedless. being
propagated likewise from suckers and from
slips.
Thorns are a nuisance on fruit plants
and the plant wizards are doing their best
to get rid of them, the means adopted being
simply to select for propagation specimens
which by chance happen to be thornless or
comparatively SO.
In this way the raspberry is being freed
of its thorns. Some oranges and lemons
are very thorny. for example, the high
priced King orange, which is the best Of
the mandarins, though rarely seen In our
markets.
In Florida its thorniness has been dimin-
ished by selecting buds from branches with
the fewest thorns.
The thorns in this case are Questionable
partly because they puncture the oranges
or lemons when the branches are blown
about by the wind.
In speaking of seedless fruits. the navel
orange must not be forgotten It Is .
freak Of nature