Peach (Amygdalus persica).—In the last chapter I gave two cases of a peach-almond and a double-flowered almond which suddenly produced fruit closely resembling true peaches. I have also given many cases of peach-trees producing buds, which, when developed into branches, have yielded nectarines. We have seen that no less than six named and several unnamed varieties of the peach have thus produced several varieties of nectarine. I have shown that it is highly improbable that all these peach-trees, some of which are old varieties, and have been propagated by the million, are hybrids from the peach and nectarine, and that it is opposed to all analogy to attribute the occasional production of nectarines on peach-trees to the direct action of pollen from some neighbouring nectarine-tree. Several of the cases are highly remarkable, because, firstly, the fruit thus produced has sometimes been in part a nectarine and in part a peach; secondly, because nectarines thus suddenly produced have reproduced themselves by seed; and thirdly, because nectarines are produced from peach-trees from seed as well as from buds. The seed of the nectarine, on the other hand, occasionally produces peaches; and we have seen in one instance that a nectarine-tree yielded peaches by bud-variation. As the peach is certainly the oldest or primary variety, the production of peaches from nectarines, either by seeds or buds, may perhaps be considered as a case of reversion. Certain trees have also been described as indifferently bearing peaches or nectarines, and this may be considered as bud-variation carried to an extreme degree.
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.[[2]] 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.”[[3]]
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.[[4]] Mr. Rivers, of Sawbridgeworth, informs me (Jan. 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.[[5]]
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.[[6]] M. Carrière gives (p. 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.[[7]] 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.[[8]] Here is another striking case given on the excellent authority of M. Carrière:[[9]] “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[[10]] 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).—A bush purchased as the Champagne, which is a variety that bears blush-coloured fruit intermediate between red and white, produced during fourteen years on separate branches and mingled on the same branch, berries of the red, white, and champagne kinds.[[11]] The suspicion naturally arises that this variety may have originated from a cross between a red and white variety, and that the above transformation may be accounted for by reversion to both parent-forms; but from the foregoing complex case of the gooseberry this view is doubtful. In France, a branch of a red-currant bush, about ten years old, produced near the summit five white berries) and lower down, amongst the red berries, one berry half red and half white.[[12]] Alexander Braun[[13]] also has often seen branches on white currant-trees bearing red berries.
Pear (Pyrus communis).—Dureau de la Malle states that the flowers on some trees of an ancient variety, the doyenné galeux, were destroyed by frost: other flowers appeared in July, which produced six pears; these exactly resembled in their skin and taste the fruit of a distinct variety, the gros doyenne blanc, but in shape were like the bon-chrétien: it was not ascertained whether this new variety could be propagated by budding or grafting. The same author grafted a bon-chrétien on a quince, and it produced, besides its proper fruit, an apparently new variety, of a peculiar form with thick and rough skin.[[14]]
Apple (Pyrus malus).—In Canada, a tree of the variety called Pound Sweet, produced,[[15]] between two of its proper fruit, an apple which was well russeted, small in size, different in shape, and with a short peduncle. As no russet apple grew anywhere near, this case apparently cannot be accounted for by the direct action of foreign pollen. M. Carrière (p. 38) mentions an analogous instance. I shall hereafter give cases of apple-trees which regularly produce fruit of two kinds, or half-and-half fruit; these trees are generally supposed, and probably with truth, to be of crossed parentage, and that the fruit reverts to both parent-forms.
Banana (Musa sapientium).—Sir R. Schomburgk states that he saw in St. Domingo a raceme on the Fig Banana which bore towards the base 125 fruits of the proper kind; and these were succeeded, as is usual, higher up the raceme, by barren flowers, and these by 420 fruits, having a widely different appearance, and ripening earlier than the proper fruit. The abnormal fruit closely resembled, except in being smaller, that of the Musa chinensis or cavendishii, which has generally been ranked as a distinct species.[[16]]