Mr. Lorin Blodget says : " I pick to-day a few bunches of grapes from the Lindley vine, Rogers' hybrid No. 9, which are clearly affected by a cross fertilization with a Delaware vine alongside of them; a much younger vine, and for the first time large enough to give opportunity. I send you a small box picked from a high point, 35 feet, and on the eastern roof slope, where it has been ten years in full bearing. They are not quite ripe, but the sparrows are at them, and have already thinned out the bunches, so I must cut them.

"The smaller grapes are both on the bunch among large ones, of the usual size, and often make nearly a full bunch of themselves. They are without seeds in most cases.

"The great Lindley vine was severely affected by the winter, and has but half a crop. The western extension was shortened 35 feet, and the northern part came out a month late. Until the last of May much of it remained dormant. Later, it has grown rapidly, with many shoots 12 to 16 feet, of this year's growth. It is still an enormous vine, and now in full vigor. Delawares are not ripe, by a full month".

[We are very glad to have these specimens, because they furnish the occasion to point out how even the most intelligent may at times be mistaken, and as accounting for the many statements that have been made from time to time, favorable to a belief of an immediate influence of pollen in fruit. Here are bunches of Lindley having many of the normal size, and many small like Delaware, and other bunches in which all the berries are small, and one may well be excused for supposing, a Delaware being near, that they were Delaware bunches produced by the action of the Delaware pollen on the flower of the Lindley. Beyond this fact of small size there is, however, nothing to indicate any difference from Lindley. The color of Lindley is like the Delaware, so we cannot infer Delaware from that, and flavor is not Delaware but Lindley. But the absence of seeds tells the whole story. We know from experience with grapes that crosses produce as perfect seeded berries as the originals. A Delaware and a Lindley, crossed together, would produce berries bearing seeds. These having no seeds evidences against the idea of the influence of Delaware pollen.

But another strong reason is that all hot house grape growers are familiar with the vines often bearing grapes not half the usual size, and wholly seedless, and this in houses all of one variety and where the pollen influence of some other variety is therefore wholly out of the question.

It is usual to refer the cause to something that interferes with the proper nutrition of the vine or flowers in the bunch, after the flowers have been fertilized enough by their own pollen to start them on the fruiting track. Nutrition ceases, from some cause, after fertilization, but before the minute embryos have started to become perfect seeds. This is the reasoning of intelligent grape growers, but we do not know that it has been demonstrated by absolute proof. - Ed. G. M].