444 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and evolution in any species of plant? Before attempting a direct answer to these 

 questions, we shall need to consider for a moment if varieties are pre-limited in dura- 

 tion, or if they " run out;" for if they do pass away, new varieties must take their 

 places, or the cultivated type of the species would cease to exist. Or, to state the 

 proposition differently, if varieties run out, the species can be rescued from oblivion 

 only by new forms; but inasmuch as all valuable cultivated plants tend constantly to 

 increase in extent of cultivation, it follows either that they do not run out, or that new 

 varieties are better than the old and drive them out. And yet, there are persons who 

 hold tenaciously to both dogmas. — that varieties run out. and that novelties do not pay 

 — without seeing that the logical result of such opinion is to drive the cultivated flora 

 from the face of the earth. Now, it is true that the varieties of any plant are, as a 

 whole, constantly changing, as one may prove by comparing the catalogues and man- 

 uals of a generation ago with those of to-day. These changes are most rapid in plants 

 of shortest duration, or those in which there has been the greatest number of genera- 

 tions, showing that the greater the opportunity for renewal of stock, the greater is the 

 variation and number of recorded varieties. Thus, the apples of to-day are as much 

 like those of a century ago as the strawberries of to-day are like those of ten years ago;, 

 and there is about the same number of generations in the one case as in the other. 

 This means, as I said before, that the rate of change in named varieties is in proportion 

 to the length of life or profitable duration of the species. This at once raises a strong 

 presumption that varieties do not wear out from mere age, but that they pass out 

 in the process of reproduction or regeneration; and, as varieties of standard merit 

 are more numerous in all plants now than they were a century, or even a human gen- 

 eration ago, it must follow that, new varieties have been appearing all these years 

 which were good enough to obtain the confidence of all careful growers. In two 

 papers which I have presented to this society, I have shown, I think, that varieties do 

 not wear out; but all plants which are habitually propagated by seeds, as garden veg- 

 etables and flowers, tend constantly to change or differ from their parents, and finally 

 to pass so far away from them that they receive new names; and plants which are prop- 

 agated from cuttings of abnormally developed parts, as the potato, constantly tend to 

 deteriorate, unless grown and selected under the very best conditions; but all plants 

 propagated from normal or unvariable parts, as by ordinary cuttings, cions and layers, 

 remain substantially the same from century to century, as is the actual case with 

 several prominent orchard fruits. If the orchard fruits do not run out, therefore, the 

 only reason why the varieties should change is because better ones appear and drive 

 them out; and inasmuch as it is a matter of common knowledge that change does take 

 place, it follows that profitable novelties have appeared.. 



Up to this time, therefore, novelties, or at least many of them, have paid. Is there 

 any reason for supposing that they will not pay equally well in the future? Or, to 

 raise my original question: Is profitable variation no longer possible? This question 

 is not new, and there is no special reason for asking it at the present time. It is cer- 

 tainly as old as commercial horticulture; and, for all I know, Noah, when driving the 

 animals into the ark, may have asked if so many varieties paid. If novelties have 

 furnished all advancement up to the present time, it would seem that they must con- 

 tinue to do so in the future; and the only reason for discussing the question at all 

 must be a prevalent belief that varieties are now so many and so good that the limit of 

 profitable evolution has been reached. 



I have said that all advancement in types of cultivated plants has come about 

 through the origination and introdution of new forms. It is necessary, then, that 

 this advancement be defined. A novelty does not necessarily need to surpass every or 

 even any old variety in order that it may have merit. It may possess attributes 

 which fit it for some entirely new condition or use. A currant or gooseberry which 

 is sweet and tender enough to supply the dessert may be a useful novelty, while 

 in all other respects it may be inferior to all existing varieties. And this is a point 

 that we should keep constantly in mind, — that we need new varieties for unfilled gaps, 

 for new regions, various soils, new markets and new household uses. If, therefore, a 

 variety is successful, or profitable, with one person only, and fails with all others, it is 

 worth introducing. The trouble is not so much that novelties are unworthy, as it is 

 that they are recommended promiscuously and that their particular and distinctive 

 merits are not discovered. Now, I like to think that the evolution of cultivated varie* 

 ties follows the same laws as the evolution of new types in nature ; and it is pretty well 

 agreed by all naturalists that there are more distinct species or forms upon the earth- 

 to-day than there have ever been at any one previous time. We are apt to think that 

 both the animal and vegetable kingdoms have passed the zenith of their development, 

 because the great number of monstrous forms are now extinct. There were giants in 

 those days. But size or bulk is not a measure of the height of development. Evolution 



