18 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



P. S. — It is a noteworthy fact that seeds of fruits produced in a cold climate 

 are apt to produce hardier trees or plants than those of milder localities; also 

 that Beedlings are, in other rerpects, often especially adapted to the sections 

 where they originate. 



PROF. W. J. BEAL'S VIEW. 



Prof. Beal followed with some remarks upon the same topic, of which the 

 following is an abstract: 



To clearly explain this process it is necessary to go a little into the science 

 of botany. What is a variety? Before explaining this we should consider 

 what constitutes species. 



Among well known wild plants we have white oak, white ash, blue ash, black 

 a?h, sugar maple, red maple, white clover, red clover, red raspberry and black 

 raspberry. Among animals we have the red squirrel, robin, brown thrush, cat 

 bird, bluebird. In each case of the plants named the seeds produce new plants, 

 like or much like the parent plants. The animals named are good examples of 

 species. 



Lin uses said, "A species is a perennial succession of individuals." Maout 

 and Decaisne say that "All individuals which resemble each other as much as 

 they do their parents or their posterity belong to the same species." Gray 

 says, "Species is the type or original of each sort of plant represented in time 

 by a succession of similar individuals." 



The characteristics of species are thought to bo somewhat firmly fixed ; yet, 

 the seedlings from a lot of seeds from one plant or pod are to a greater or less 

 extent unlike each other. If they vary a little, as they often do, each may be 

 considered a variety. If a lot of seeds from one plant are widely separated and 

 planted under different conditions of soil, climate, etc., the young plants will 

 be more likely to vary than they would if planted in the same place where the 

 parent grew. 



Some species are much more prone to vary than others. In the nursery 

 row we often see Norway spruces which came from the same lot of seeds look 

 so unlike each other that any one but an expert would be inclined to say they 

 were different species. Some are stout, dark green, with rigid limbs; some 

 are slender with long drooping limbs. Between these extremes we find all 

 gradations. A lot of tulip trees or whitewoods vary but little. Most of the 

 varieties are selected from a lot of seedlings for some striking or interesting 

 peculiarity which they possess. Mr. Wier went through his long rows of silver 

 maple seedlings, and among them was a single tree which had leaves much 

 incised or deeply cut. This he propagates by budding or grafting and names it 

 Wier's cut-leaved maple. 



Some of our varieties came from bud varieties or sporting. In this case, for 

 some reason not known, a single limb or branch of a plant is produced which 

 is unlike any of the rest. Some of our varieties of garden and greenhouse 

 plants originated in this way. Of this kind we have the chameleon coleus. The 

 hoop willow is one of this kind of variety. The hoop willow was a branch of 

 a weeping willow tree on which the leaves each rolled into a ring or hoop, 

 although there was no sign of disease. 



The varieties which come from sports are likely to bear branches which 

 wholly or partially revert to the parent stock. Their peculiarities are not well 

 fixed. 



All of our varieties in cultivation are multiplied by budding, grafting, lay- 

 ering, suckers, runners, stolons, offsets, and the like. Our varieties of apples, 



