12 STATE nORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



tint that is complimentary to tlie tint of the fruit the color is heightened and 

 the basket of fruit rendered more attractive. 



Mr. Healy : I have a practical illustration of this. My business in fruit 

 shipping season takes me into Chicago often. One day on South Water street 

 I noticed a fine lot of peaches in very ordinary packages offered at ^1.40, while 

 my peaches, no better, were bringing §1.75. I bought the fruit at $1.40 and 

 placed it in my packages and sold it at $1.75. 



Upon request, Mr. Tracy described a cheap hand seed sower, after which the 

 meeting took a recess until evening. 



Evening Scusion. 



Excellent music was furnished to open the exercises of the evening, after 

 which the following committees were announced : 



On Crede7itiaIs~},lcssTS. Whitbeck, Stowell, and Phelps, of Iludson. 



On Fruits— \ym. Eowe, Grand Rapids; J. S. Woodward, Lockport, ^^ Y.; Mr. Gib- 

 Eon, Clinton. 



On Resolutions— i:. II. Scott, Ann Arbor; S. B. Mann, Adrian; H. D. Cutting, 

 Clinton. 



The general topic of tlio evening was ''Primary Horticulture," upon which 

 Prof. W. W. Tracy gave the first address upon 



SEEDS, 



What are they, how made, and what are they good for? The address was 

 admirably illustrated by drawings upon large sheets of muslin. The following 

 is an abstract only of his remarks : 



Seeds, how are they made, and what arc they made for, arc questions which 

 will be asked by thousands of children, and possibly by some grown people, 

 before many weeks, and so I ask your attention to the consideration of them 

 this evening. In doing so I shall try to avoid all botanical or scientific names 

 and methods of inquiry and look at these questions more in the way a bright, 

 intelligent boy would do were his interest excited by seeing the seeds he had 

 planted springing up into promising plants. This will necessitate the ignoring 

 of some nice botanical distinctions of great interest to the botanist, but which 

 would simply cloud and dim the subject were I to introduce them here ; but 1 

 shall try to avoid any statements which would in any way mislead or give a 

 false impression of the real structure or mode of growth of the plants of which 

 I speak. 



Let us look at the lat-t question first, and through it find an answer to the 

 lirst. No one who has any appreciation of the beauties of nature (and who 

 has not) can fail to see that one great element of that beauty is the wonderful 

 commingling of different species ; but still few people realize how wonderfully 

 they are mingled. A few statements may aid us in tliis. The number of 

 clearly marked and distinct species is variously estimated at from 75,000 to 

 150,o5o. Some of these species number millions upon millions of individuals, 

 and are found all over the known world. For instance, I have seen the com- 

 mon silver weed (Potentilla anscrina) growing beside the curb stones in Detroit 

 under the shadow of the City llall ; in New York on the ocean shore ; at Marble 

 Head, five miles from any human habitation ; on the Upper Peninsula, and on 

 the banks of the Mississippi in Wisconsin ; and botanists tell us it is to be 

 found abundantly everywliere in North America from Pennsylvania to Green- 

 laud, and from Oregon to IJehring's Strait ; all over Europe from the Mediterra- 



