The grosse mignonne peach at Montreuil produced "from a sporting branch" the grosse mignonne tardive, "a most excellent variety," which ripens its fruit a fortnight later than the parent tree, and is equally good. (11/2. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1854 page 821.) This same peach has likewise produced by bud-variation the early grosse mignonne. Hunt's large tawny nectarine "originated from Hunt's small tawny nectarine, but not through seminal reproduction." (11/3. Lindley 'Guide to Orchard' as quoted in 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1852 page 821. For the Early mignonne peach see 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1864 page 1251.)
PLUMS.
Mr. Knight states that a tree of the yellow magnum bonum plum, forty years old, which had always borne ordinary fruit, produced a branch which yielded red magnum bonums. (11/4. 'Transact. Hort. Soc.' volume 2 page 160.) Mr. Rivers, of Sawbridgeworth, informs me (January 1863) that a single tree out of 400 or 500 trees of the Early Prolific plum, which is a purple kind, descended from an old French variety bearing purple fruit, produced when about ten years old bright yellow plums; these differed in no respect except colour from those on the other trees, but were unlike any other known kind of yellow plum. (11/5. See also 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1863 page 27.)
CHERRY (Prunus cerasus).
Mr. Knight has recorded (ibid) the case of a branch of a May-Duke cherry, which, though certainly never grafted, always produced fruit, ripening later, and more oblong than the fruit on the other branches. Another account has been given of two May-Duke cherry-trees in Scotland, with branches bearing oblong and very fine fruit, which invariably ripened, as in Knight's case, a fortnight later than the other cherries. (11/6. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1852 page 821.) M. Carriere gives (page 37) numerous analogous cases, and one of the same tree bearing three kinds of fruit.
GRAPES (Vitis vinifera).
The black or purple Frontignan in one case produced during two successive years (and no doubt permanently), spurs which bore white Frontignan grapes. In another case, on the same footstalk, the lower berries "were well- coloured black Frontignans; those next the stalk were white, with the exception of one black and one streaked berry;" and altogether there were fifteen black and twelve white berries on the same stalk. In another kind of grape, black and amber-coloured berries were produced in the same cluster. (11/7. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1852 page 629; 1856 page 648; 1864 page 986. Other cases are given by Braun 'Rejuvenescence' in 'Ray Soc. Bot. Mem.' 1853 page 314.) Count Odart describes a variety which often bears on the same stalk small round and large oblong berries; though the shape of the berry is generally a fixed character. (11/8. 'Ampelographie' etc. 1849 page 71.) Here is another striking case given on the excellent authority of M. Carriere (11/9. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1866 page 970.): "a black Hamburg grape (Frankenthal) was cut down, and produced three suckers; one of these was layered, and after a time produced much smaller berries, which always ripened at least a fortnight earlier than the others. Of the remaining two suckers, one produced every year fine grapes, whilst the other, although it set an abundance of fruit, matured only a few, and these of inferior quality."
GOOSEBERRY (Ribes grossularia).
A remarkable case has been described by Dr. Lindley (11/10. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1855 pages 597, 612.) of a bush which bore at the same time no less than four kinds of berries, namely, hairy and red,—smooth, small and red,—green,—and yellow tinged with buff; the two latter kinds had a different flavour from the red berries, and their seeds were coloured red. Three twigs on this bush grew close together; the first bore three yellow berries and one red; the second twig bore four yellow and one red; and the third four red and one yellow. Mr. Laxton also informs me that he has seen a Red Warrington gooseberry bearing both red and yellow fruit on the same branch.
CURRANT (Ribes rubrum).