Fruits of the pineapples and bananas without seeds
are on record as well as some varieties of apples and pears, of raisins
and oranges. And some years ago Mr. Riviere of Algeria described a date
growing in his garden that forms fruit without pits. The stoneless plum
of Mr. [135] Burbank of Santa Rosa, California, is also a very curious
variety, the kernel of which is fully developed but naked, no hard
substance intervening between it and the pulp.
More curious still are the unbranched varieties consisting of a single
stem, as may be seen sometimes in the corn or maize and in the fir.
Fir-trees of some three or four meters in height without a single
branch, wholly naked and bearing leaves only on the shoots of the last
year's growth at the apex of the tree, may be seen. Of course they
cannot bear seed, and so it is with the sterile maize, which never
produces any seed-spikes or staminate flowers. Other seedless varieties
can be propagated by buds; their origin is in most cases unknown, and we
are not sure as to whether they should be classified with the constant
or with the inconstant varieties.
A very curious loss is that of starch in the grains of the sugar-corn
and the sugar-peas. It is replaced by sugar or some allied substance
(dextrine). Equally remarkable is the loss of the runners in the
so-called "Gaillon" strawberries.
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