STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 63 



probably as little realized by most persons who know of the circumstance ; 

 but I feel sure that you, who are imbued with the spirit of horticulture, can 

 well understand and clearly appreciate the value placed upon the fruition 

 of a desired variation from the parental form in any department of your 

 calling. Had organic life been built upon the principle of direct inheri- 

 tance — had the All Wise discarded from his scheme of creation the prin- 

 ciple of variation from parental forms (as so many of our most dogmatic 

 scientists seem to think he should have done) — our world must have been, 

 at best, but a purgatory of monotony — undesirable, unendurable. Think, 

 for a moment, what would be the effect upon any mind, if it was steadily 

 and continually directed to the contemplation of a passing chain, every 

 succeeding link of which was fashioned an exact counterpart of its pre- 

 ceding fellow, and thus on, and on, the same picture, the same thought 

 continually presented, without the relief of any variety? Such monotony 

 would even unthrone reason in time. 



The mind, directed to the contemplation of natural objects, is not 

 thus afflicted with monotony. Change, variation, novelty ever appear to 

 claim the attention, and to bestow present pleasure and a promise of 

 future interest. The Master Builder budded ail-wisely when he constituted 

 the human intellect with its absolute requirement of variety, and then 

 filled His world with variety and the possibilities of variation of all ex- 

 isting forms for the mind's nourishment. Prof. Agassiz and his school 

 of naturalists insist upon the idea that a fair investigation of the \)he- 

 nomena of life proves the existence of a definite plan of creation in the 

 mind of the Creator; and, except we are so presumptuous as to deny 

 the plainest attributes of divinity in onr conception of the Creator, we 

 must all agree that He did plan, as also He did execute, even from 

 the dawning day of creation, ail-wisely. His "plan" was so perfect that 

 it embraced the element of variation from a fixed heredity, so faultless 

 that the works which came from His hand "good" were capable of be- 

 coming, in consonance with that "plan," better. The hope for our 

 calling rests in the possibility of improvement ; and variation, as opposed 

 to constant inheritance, makes improvement possible, and nourishes that 

 hope. 



We all wish for new forms, and better forms, in every department of 

 vegetable 1/fe. Hence there is no part of the science of vegetable life 

 which naturally possesses the absorbing interest for the progressive rea- 

 soner as does the subject of variations. How the variations we see have 

 come about, is an ever present question, an always interesting question ; 

 and to what extent variations may be made to fulfill an intelligent design, 

 and so be subject to our wishes, is a yet deeper, more absorbing question. 

 For the purpose of directing thought toward tliese subjects, I have occu- 

 pied such ground in my papers presented to this and kindred societies, 

 during five years past, as seemed to me best calculated to provoke atten- 

 tion and discussion. 



The object in view has been, I think, measurably attained. Many of 

 our best members have sharply contested positions taken in these papers, 

 and thus the interest of the subject has been heightened by contest, and 



