Abstract
LONDON. Linnean Society, Derember 19, 1912.—Prof. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Cecil H. Hooper: Experiments on the pollination of hardy fruits, with observations on the insect visitors to the blossoms. Strawberries, provided there is wind, set fruit well without insects. Raspberries and loganberries set fruit imperfect in shape if insects are excluded. Currants and gooseberries, owing to the construction of their flowers and pollen, cannot be pollinated and set their fruit without the visits of insects. All these plants set fruit perfectly with pollen of the same variety or even of the same flower; but in the case of the apple, pear, plum, and cherry, this is not always the case, many varieties being self-sterile, and almost all produce more abundant and finer fruit with pollen of another variety. In these trees there is little transference of pollen by the wind, and even if a self-fertile tree is enclosed in muslin whilst in blossom (there being ample movement of the wind, insects only being excluded), it is the exception for any fruit to set; it is the same with gooseberries and currants. In trials with apples, only nineteen varieties out of sixty-five proved self-fertile; in pears, four out of thirty; in plums, twenty-one out of forty-one; in cherries, five out of twelve; whilst, when cross-pollinated, in three-quarters of the trials one or more fruits set on a truss. There seems to be a preference as to pollen, some varieties setting better with pollen of one variety than with that of another; and some varieties will not set with certain pollen. Out of nearly 3000 insects observed last spring visiting the blossoms of the various fruit bushes and trees, 88 per cent, were hive-bees, 5½ per cent, bumble and other wild bees, and 6½ per cent, flies, ants, beetles, wasps, and other insects; but the latter group have not fluffy bodies for carrying pollen, and amuse themselves eating the pollen.—H. M. Chibber: The morphology and histology or Piper Betle, Linn.
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Societies and Academies . Nature 90, 505–508 (1913). https://doi.org/10.1038/090505b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/090505b0