with the utmost expedition. Thus to translate hara-kiri as disembowelling, or embowelling, is both ghastly and inaccurate in the impression that it leaves on the mind.

Suicide in any form is incompatible with Western notions of right and wrong, and it certainly ought not to be encouraged, though there may be conditions, it would seem to us in the East, when it may be wholly or partially excused.

SUYEMATSU.

THE CORELESS APPLE

THE Coreless apple has at last been produced. It is regarded as the world's greatest discovery in horticulture,' and in fruit-growing circles is called the wonder of the age.' If the fruit is of high quality, of good saleable size and colour, and a late keeper, then it will revolutionise the commercial apple-growing industries everywhere. If it is not a full-sized apple, then, despite the fact that it possesses onefourth more solid flesh than the seedy apple of equal proportions, it cannot be expected to supersede such mammoth though seedy varieties as the Blenheim Orange, Golden Noble, Bismarck, or Peasgood's Nonsuch. The flavour of the coreless apple is beyond question. If it proves as large as its rivals, trees producing the new wonder, which is a winter variety, will be planted by the million in the commercial fruit fields at home and abroad. Even if the seedless apple justified all that has been said by its best friends in its praise, there is little likelihood of its impeding the profitable sale of ordinary apples of high grade. Its introduction would, however, ruin the sale of common out-of-date varieties of fruit, and ensure the destruction of millions of worn-out, moss-covered, and profitless trees, which for years have encumbered thousands of acres of some of the richest and most productive land in Great Britain. In that sense the coming of the coreless apple would do untold good to many landowners, cultivators, and public consumers combined.

Why should we not possess a coreless and seedless apple, since the seedless orange is unquestionably the largest, most expensive, and best fruit of its class obtainable? The new apple, which is both coreless and seedless, was introduced by an old fruit raiser. For twelve years he experimented to obtain the fruit. As the result of seeking to secure the seedless apple, a blossomless tree has been developed. It bears a stamen and a very small quantity of pollen. The importance of such developments is apparent. The cold spells do not affect the fruit, and the apple grower has little to fear from late spring frosts, which in most years do much harm on the fruit farm.

The tree is described as blossomless, the only thing resembling a blossom being a small cluster of tiny green leaves, which grow around

the newly formed apple, and shelter it. Being devoid of blossoms, it is claimed that the fruit offers no effective hiding-place in which the codlin moth may lay its eggs, which it usually does in the open eye of the fruit. The devastations of the codlin moth are so extensive that in the aggregate they cause losses in Great Britain, the Continent, and the United States exceeding 5,000,000l. a year. In some English counties I have known the apple crop to be reduced by over 50 per cent. by the voracious grub of this pest. I am not in strict agreement with the producer of the new apple when he claims absolute immunity from the ravage of the codlin moth on account of the lack of blossoms making it almost impossible for the pest to deposit its eggs in the eye of the apple. In my tests I proved conclusively that the eggs are sometimes laid on the skin of the apple also. But with no petals and the use of insecticides by spraying the grub could readily be destroyed. In the plantations where the coreless apple trees have been grown no codlin moth has made its appearance. It is said that so long as they are isolated from seedy apple trees there is no possibility of the moth attaching itself to them, there being nothing in the way of perfume or flower to attract it.

The colour of the new apple is red, dotted with yellow on the skin. As with the seedless orange, so with the seedless apple, a slightly hardened substance makes its appearance at the navel end. But this can be obliterated by culture. The originator of the coreless apple states that the further we get away from the original five trees the larger and better the fruits become in every way.' Whether the Spencer seedless apple is actually seed-proof time alone can prove. As the result of tests, it has been found absolutely impossible for the coreless apple trees to bear fruits that have seeds in them, that is, of their own accord. Still, when grown in the vicinity of ordinary apple trees, with their branches interlocked with each other, a small percentage of the coreless trees have sometimes produced two or three seeds, though they are just as apt to be found near the skin of the fruit as in the centre of it. A seed has been found within oneeighth of an inch of the rind, right away from the core or the core lines. These fortuitous seeds owe their origin to the transference of the pollen from the blossoms of the seedy apple trees to the stigma of the coreless apple tree. Whether carried by wind or bees, when the pollen is deposited in this way there is the possibility that a few seeds may here and there result, but it cannot be said that necessarily the seed or seeds will be about the tube or even near it.

The appearance of one single variety of seedless apple cannot seriously affect the skilled commercial apple growers of the world. If the introducer of the new fruit can develop seedless varieties of the various leading apples in commerce-and he claims that he can do so— then the coming of the coreless apple may in due course disorganise the industry. But we have not got to that stage yet. Apple culture

is more important even than orange culture. In the United States there are 200,000,000 apple trees in bearing, from which 250,000,000 bushels of fruit are annually harvested. In ten years these trees will give a yield of 400,000,000 bushels. At the present time the apple consumption of the United States is 80 lb. per head of the population per year. By bushel measure the American apple crop is four times greater than the entire wheat yield of Great Britain and Ireland. Billions of apple trees are grown in the orchards of the world, and millions of them are still being planted each year. The apple imports of Great Britain alone range between 4,500,000 cwt. and 5,000,000 cwt. In addition, I estimate the census of our apple trees at 20,000,000.

There are now 2,000 of these coreless apple trees available for propagation, to supply the orchards of the world. It is estimated that by 1906 2,500,000 of these trees will be put upon the market. For domestic use a coreless apple will commend itself to every housewife in the country. For evaporating purposes it would prove invaluable.

The time has come when, in the interests of the prosperous commercial fruit-growing industries, the merits of the coreless apple should be considered. The brief announcement that has been made in the press respecting it has already created some stir in fruit-trade circles. I have received communications from leading producers in the four kingdoms, on the Continent, and even in several of our colonies, relative to the claims of this wonderful apple. I am enabled to write reliably upon the subject, my information coming personally from the originator of the seedless apple trees. Already the new comer has been assailed by critics interested in the sale of seedy forms of foreign fruit. But the seedless apple must be judged upon its merits. It is not sufficient to condemn it on the ground that we possess seedy dessert varieties, such as Cox's Orange Pippin or Ribston, which are far superior to it in flavour. Even then there might be a huge field available for distributing the seedless apple, for we use as many culinary as dessert varieties. The word of the cook will have much to do in moulding the final opinion pronounced upon the claims of this pomological curiosity. The Spencer apple is not the first seedless apple that has been grown. During the past sixty years about half a dozen such claimants have made their appearance. But in no instance was it found possible to reproduce trees from them which would bear seedless apples. The stock of 2,000 trees now in the hands of the raiser were obtained from five trees that bore fruit practically without seeds. Trees that have produced crops for eight years successively have all yielded coreless fruits each season.

Though no blossom is at any time visible on the Spencer seedless apple trees, when budded or grafted they ensure trees that will produce coreless apples. They are great bearers, and crop freely in any

country where the ordinary apple tree will fruit. In 1862 Abbé D. Dupuy, Professor of Natural History at Auch, drew attention to the Bon Chrétien d'Auch pear, which at Auch produced fruits without seeds, though when removed to another locality the seeds reappeared in the fruit in the usual way. This fact up to that period had led the fruit-tree distributors to treat the pear in one locality as Bon Chrétien d'Auch, and in another district as the Winter Bon Chrétien. But the Spencer apple remains seedless in any soil. When the coreless apple is cut through the centre of the eye to the stalk, core lines and carpels can be faintly traced. It may be argued from this that the fruit has started from a rudimentary flower. But the corelessness and seedlessness of the novelty is beyond question. The carpels being the seed-cells, if there are no seeds there can be no need for carpels. As the apple develops and matures these core lines become absorbed into the flesh. The nearest approach to what some might be tempted to call a flower is the calyx, but at no time are there any petals attached to it. As a novelty for private gardens, undoubtedly there is room for the sale of millions of these trees at fancy values. The coreless apple will produce as great a sensation when brought before the public as the seedless orange did a few years ago. The orange is a luxury; the aromatic apple has become an absolute necessity.

SAMPSON MORGAN.

VOL. LVI-Nc 334

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