Abstract
AT the John Innes Horticultural Institution we have recently raised hybrids between pears and apples; they were obtained in the following way. The occurrence of apomixis in the Pomoideæ1, and the high frequency of diploid seedlings, 23 out of 39, in a family of pears we raised from crossing the diploid variety Fertility with the triploid variety Beurre Diel, suggested that they may have been apomictically, or in part apomictically, reproduced. To test this possibility one of us (E. M.) isolated a tree of Fertility, emasculated sixteen flowers and brushed the ovaries over with a 40 p.p.m. solution of β-naphthoxy-acetic acid. Four flowers were pollinated with the pollen of an unnamed tetraploid variety of apple and twelve with the pollen of the diploid apple Crawley Beauty. Twenty-four hours later the ovaries were again treated with β-naphthoxy-acetic acid. Three fruits developed from pollination with the tetraploid apple and twelve from pollination with the diploid. Seed content and germination are shown in the following table.
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CRANE, M., MARKS, E. Pear-Apple Hybrids. Nature 170, 1017 (1952). https://doi.org/10.1038/1701017a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1701017a0
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