Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/221

Rh forms indicating this tendency to the correlated changes, we may succeed in obtaining important additions to our seedless or nearly seedless plants. Whether the ultimate profit would be large enough to pay for the time and labor involved is a question which we need not enter into; there appears to me no reasonable doubt that such efforts would be successful. There is no reason in the nature of things why we should not have strawberries without the so-called seeds; blackberries and raspberries, with only delicious pulp; and large grapes as free from seeds as the small ones which we call "currants," but which are really grapes from Corinth.

These and the coreless apples and pears of the future, the stoneless cherries and plums, like the common fruits before mentioned, must be propagated by bud division, and be open to the tendency to diminished strength said to be the consequence of continued bud-propagation. But this bridge need not be crossed until we come to it. Bananas have been perpetuated in this way for many centuries, and pineapples since the discovery of America, so that the borrowed trouble alluded to is not threatening. First we must catch our seedless fruits.

Which of our wild fruits are promising subjects for selection and cultivation?

Mr. Crozier, of Michigan, has pointed out the direction in which this research may prove most profitable. He enumerates many of our small fruits and nuts which can be improved.

Another of our most careful and successful horticulturists believes that the common blueberry and its allies are very suitable for this purpose and offer good material for experimenting. The sugar-plum, or so-called shadbush, has been improved in many particulars, and others can be added to this list.

But again we turn very naturally to Japan, the country from which our gardens have received many treasures. Referring once more to Prof. Georgeson's studies, we must mention the varieties of Japanese apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, and persimmons. The persimmons are already well known in some parts of our country under the name "kaki," and they will doubtless make rapid progress in popular favor.

The following are less familar: Actinidia arguta and volubilis, with delicious berries;

 Slaunfonia, an evergreen vine yielding a palatable fruit; Myrica rubra, a small tree with an acidulous, juicy fruit; Elæagnus umbellata, with berries for preserves.

The active and discriminating horticultural journals in America and Europe are alive to the possibilities of new Japanese fruits,