In the case of sieboldiana, however, we succeeded in securing what appears to be fruit of certain definite cross-fertilization, as sieboldiana x nigra; sieboldiana x cinerea and possibly sieboldiana x regia.
Only in one instance did the nuts appear to have other than the usual characters of sieboldiana.
The nuts of the cinerea cross were longer, more tubular and somewhat deeper furrowed and darker.
Unfortunately some conflicting results in the fruiting of the sieboldiana places the possible cross-fruits under a cloud.
A peculiarity of the blossoming of the sieboldiana at Arlington this year was that the stamens and pistils of an individual tree opened at dates of six to ten days apart, and with the tree used for crossing the catkins were all off before the pistils opened. As no two trees are near together, perhaps two to three hundred feet being the closest, natural cross-pollenating was not expected. However, after the cross-pollenations by hand were made and fruits set, and even matured, it was found that some clusters had from one to three more nuts than were hand treated. Many of the clusters had less nuts than the number of pistils treated, which was to be expected.
But how to account for the extra sets is a problem not clear for it is possible that pollenation might have occurred in one of two ways—by stray pollen grains from the hand operations by wind-carried grains from the trees. In any event only the fruiting of the trees from the nuts under consideration will settle it, and as these have been planted we are on the way to the solution.
THE INDIANA PECANS
R. L. McCoy, Indiana
The pecan is probably the best nut that grows. It belongs to the hickory family which is indigenous to North America. Since water is its natural distributing agent it is most generally found growing intermixed with the large hickory nut or shagbark in creek and river bottoms. While the hickory is hardy enough to thrive even into the Canadian provinces the pecan is not so hardy and is seldom found in the northern tier of states. It thrives well as far north as the northern boundary of Illinois. The writer has seen a transplanted tree in bearing in Branch County, Michigan, and native trees along the Mississippi River near the mouth of the Wisconsin.