WESTERN NEW YORK HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 445 



is perfected only when every phase and condition of the external world has some type 

 of life particularly adapted to it ; and inasmuch as new conditions in the physical 

 features of the globe are constantly appearing, there must be a constantly progressing 

 attempt on the part of animals and plants to adapt themselves to these new condi- 

 tions. The surface of the earth was probably never so varied in physical characters as 

 at the present time, and it is safe to assume — particularly as such facts as are known 

 support the assumption — that there has never been so many diverse forms of life upon 

 the globe as at present; and this differentiation is proceeding as rapidly to-day, proba- 

 bly, as it has at any time in the past. In other words, the only limit to the expansion and 

 evolution of wild plants is that of the surroundings in which they live ; and as culti- 

 vated plants modify themselves through the same laws, it must follow^ that there is no 

 predetermined limit to their amelioration or improvement, as long as man continues to 

 cultivate and modify the earth. Every year may witness better varieties until the 

 plant becomes so unlike its ancestors that its parentage may be lost or unrecognized, 

 and new specific forms, even, may originate under the hand of man; and this has 

 actually occurred in many instances. 



If philosophy teaches us that there is no set or predetermined limit beyond which 

 plants may not progress, reflection must likewise convince every one of us of the 

 essential truth of the same proposition. We know that most important cultivated 

 plants have come from a very inferior ancestry ; and some, if not most fruits have 

 sprung from parents which are scarcely edible to cultivated tastes. And we have a 

 graphic means of comparing the improved side by side with the inferior types in the 

 small-leaved, small and austere-fruited and often weak and tender " crabs " and other 

 seedlings, which, however, are only partially reverted to their aboriginal condition. 

 And in America, where vast new regions have been settled with great rapidity, we have 

 seen the extension of fruit growing, by means of new and adaptive varieties, into regions 

 which were thought to be unfitted for such purposes but a few years ago. It is a fact 

 that all plants, especially our fruits, have responded with really remarkable facility to 

 all the new demands which our markets and soils and climatic limitations have placed 

 upon them. This response has been in the way of new varieties, and it has, of course, 

 been most marked in those fruits which were comparatively little developed and to 

 which almost every condition of cultivation and dissemination was new. Y''ou will 

 recall the readiness with which the native plums, within forty years, have given us 

 nearly two hundred varieties adapted to a remarkable range of conditions and uses ; 

 and the blackberries and raspberries within a generation have given results which show 

 that they will equal, if, indeed, they do not eclipse, the wonderful evolution of native 

 grapes within a century ; and many of you will recall the fact that it is less than a gen- 

 eration ago when it was thought that roses could not be successfully grown out of 

 doors in this country. Evolution, therefore, undoubtedly becomes slower the more the 

 plant is improved, for it has constantly to compete with its own progress ; but if worthy 

 new varieties are less frequent in the old standard fruits, it does not follow that there 

 are none. 



I assert, therefore, that the tendency to produce new varieties is the means by which 

 cultivated plants are ever more and more improved and fitted into new conditions and 

 uses ; and novelties must pay if horticulture is to forever pay. But not all novelties 

 pay, and the reasons must be apparent. They may not be good enough to pay. Nov- 

 elties are introduced both hastily and indiscreetly. If the philosophy of the question, 

 as we have considered it, teaches us anything, it is : First, that the older and more 

 improved the type, the less are the chances of securing a worthy novelty ; Second, that 

 there is most use for novelties in those plants which are propagated by seeds and by 

 abnormally developed parts, because such plants usually quickly run out by variation ; 

 Third, that worthy novelties appear less frequently in old regions than in new ones, 

 because of greater competition of established varieties there ; and Fourth, that the 

 merit of a variety lies in its adaptability to some particular use or demand. I therefore 

 look with caution ijpon novelties in the old standard fruits and in the old horticultural 

 regions, the more especially as these fruits are propagated by buds and the good old 

 varieties remain with us ; and I look with suspicion upon all those which are recom- 

 mended indiscriminately, indefinitely, generally, and for everything and equally for all 

 regions, because their descriptions cannot be truthful and cannot be founded upon 

 experience. I believe that the time is now at band when a man can establish a more 

 lucrative nursery or plant business by giving his novelties careful and discriminating 

 tests and by telling what they are not good for as clearly as be tells what they are 

 good for, as he can by possessing himself of the desire to introduce a certain number 

 of novelties each year and to paint them in such faultless colors that every thoughtful 

 man knows that they are false. 



