60 American llortlcuUuraJ Society. 



and tlicy could not bo depended upon for a crop the next season, as there 

 would probably be some variation, and i)(;ssiblya hybrid would be the result. 

 Some of the members at the meetinj; at Kansas City in discussing this 

 question .stated as their opinion that this change was not all the result of 

 cross-fertilization, but tlie influence of tree upon tree or plant upon ]ilant. 

 and it is a very common oi)inion in the South that one variety of sweet 

 potato will partake of the color and quality <»f another growing near — and 

 a few years ago I half-way believed it, too. I was then growing the Red 

 llayti with several other varieties, and I would sometimes lind among the 

 southern Queen and Yellow Yams j)Otatoes streaked with red— sometimes 

 half red. 1 then discarded the llayti and b(jught new seed; but I still lind 

 among those varieties specimens partly red. and have not grown a red 

 variety on my place for six years. Now I have never seen a streak of red 

 upon a Yellow Jersey, even when grown in the next row to a red variety, 

 and my theory is this: one or both of the parents of the Southern Queen 

 and Yellow Yam were red varieties, while the Jersey is a seedling of yellow 

 parentage having no red blood in it. 



If the character of the strawberry is so changed by the process of fertiliza- 

 tion, why may we not look for the same results in the peach, the grape, or 

 any of the other fruits; they would bo as susceptible of change as the straw- 

 berry, and I would think more so, for their seeds have a greater proportion- 

 ate weight or bulk and it is well known that they all admit of cross-fertiliza- 

 tion, and while all of the fruits are not structurally the same, the process of 

 seed development is identical from organs connected closely with the pistil. 



Nature prepares the seed in embryo long before the blooming season, and 

 when impregnated is prepared for development. The pollen has performed 

 its work, and neither it or the plant from whence it came can have any 

 further influence upon the growing pulj). If any change is wrought in the 

 color, form, or flavor it must come from the influence of those few tiny seeds 

 in process of development; and I can not see how this could be. Were it 

 so there could be no reliable description given of pistillate varieties, and the 

 descriptive catalogue must necessarily road thus: Crescent, pistillate; size 

 largo when fertilized with Sharpless, dark crimson when fertilized with the 

 Wilson; a good shipper when fertilized with Sucker State; early or late- 

 sweet or sour, according to season and degree of acidity of the variety fur- 

 nishing the pollen. Now I have road the description of the Crescent as given 

 by most all of the prominent nurserymen of our country from its introduc- 

 tion down to the present time, and they have been as nearly alike as the 

 description of any self-fertilizing sort. 



I think, Mr. President, there is a good deal of imagination in this matter. 

 To illustrate: if a gentleman here should be pointed out to me as your 

 brother, I would i)robably at once discover a resemblance between yourself 

 and him, while had I not been informed of the relationship I would have 

 passed him a hundred times without noticing the rosomblanco, unless it was 

 a very marked one. So it is that if a plate of berries be pointed out to us as 



