5i — 



Fig. 8. — The Garden Herbarium. 



Although the experimental work of the division is varied, it 

 nevertheless has a unity of design throughout. The variation 



of plants under culture is the 

 perennial theme of investiga- 

 tion. The mere testing of va- 

 rieties forms a small and com- 

 paratively unimportant labor. 

 It is felt that such work is 

 scarcely experimentation, and 

 it would be folly to undertake 

 it as long as means exist for 

 undertaking work of a some- 

 what general and comprehen- 

 sive character. Yet nearly all 

 the novelties are grown, not so 

 much, however, for the purpose 

 of making definite reports upon 

 them with the idea of establish- 

 ing their merits, as for the pur- 

 pose of keeping track of the kind and extent of variation in plants, 

 and also for the purpose of answering any questions concerning 

 them which may be submitted to us. In other words, while the 

 novelties, or a large part of them, are grown, we do not expect to 

 make definite reports upon them, with the exception of special 

 cases in which we are making, particular studies. We have se- 

 lected a few general orders or kinds of plants upon which we are 

 making the most careful studies. These are, at present : ist, 

 tomatoes ; 2d, cucurbits, including the pumpkins, squashes, 

 melons, and cucumbers ; 3d, egg-plants ; 4th, plums and cherries, 

 and their allies, more especially the wild species ; and 5th, the 

 brambles, including the raspberries, blackberries, and their wild 

 congeners. In these particular lines we expect to arrive at more 

 or less definite conclusions concerning the novelties of any year, 

 especially so among the garden vegetables mentioned. These 

 plants, and all others which we grow, are studied with reference 

 to the influence upon them of soil, culture, and climate, and 

 especially with reference to the effects of crossing and hybridiza- 

 tion. The crossing among cucurbits began a number of years ago. 

 They have now reached about one thousand in number, and our 

 our plantations of pumpkins and squashes, during the last year, 



