68 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



these flowers and fruits back historically, we lose sight of 

 them, as we do of many things in our own history. We can- 

 not trace them all back to their ancestors. A very large 

 number of our valuable fruits and grains, it is impossible for 

 us to trace back. The history of some of them is known. 

 Those that were discovered in this country we can trace 

 back to their discovery here. But we cannot trace back 

 Indian corn to the wild kind. It has been said that Indian 

 corn has been found in some places on this continent wild ; 

 but I have never found those statements substantiated. It 

 was found in this country, and found among the Indians ; 

 and that is all we know. While we cannot tell the origin 

 of all our cultivated plants, we can trace them back far 

 enough to be able to say that the plants which we to-day 

 cultivate, the plants which you come here to consider, the 

 growth of which you have been discussing this afternoon, — 

 we can trace them back far enough to say that their early 

 forms were hardly fit for men to eat : they existed in a very 

 poor, mean, crude condition. We are able to say this, and 

 that many of the things that to-night delight us by their 

 beauty, and delight us by their delicious flavor, and that 

 are for the comfort, support, and enjoyment of the human 

 race, are what they are in consequence of the action of man 

 within the historic period. Looking around here, I see some 

 men in whose hands these plants have shown their plasticity, 

 and their adaptation to human wants. Just think of it. Is 

 it true that our friend Mr. Moore, and our other friends 

 around us, are able to bring out these splendid specimens of 

 improved plants, — improved cauliflowers, improved pears, 

 improved grapes, improved strawberries, and all the rest, — 

 that they are able to do this in consequence of a character- 

 istic which was lodged in the germ millions of years ago ? 

 Down in the deep rocks of the earth are found remains of 

 plants bearing the characteristics of the lower seaweeds ; but 

 yet they undoubtedly had in them these two elements, — that 

 of perpetuating their kind, and at the same time that of 

 varying so as to give a different form. Now, it is relying 

 upon these two characteristics of living species, that you do 

 all your work here. 



And now I wtsh to bring out a new law of plant-develop- 

 ment, which, although it seems simple enough when stated 



