454 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



DARWIN'S XEW BOOK.* 



15 Y PROF. W. .1. BE.VL. 



It seems to be the general opinion of all ^Tho are prepared and competent to 

 judge, tiiat Mr. Darwin luis produced a most wonderful book, — as I believe, 

 one which has not been excelled in importance to the farmer by any work in 

 this or in any age. 



It is not easy reading, even to the botanist who is most familiar with the sub- 

 jects treated. The author has recorded in a book of aboiit 500 pages, a vast 

 number of experiments and observations made, and in many cases often 

 repeated, during a period of ten or twelve years. He has crossed the flowers, 

 sowed the seeds and nicasured the heights of the i)lants, weighed or counted 

 the seeds and capsules, often two or three times for many years, of several 

 specimens of plants belonging to fifty-seven species, of fifty-two different genera 

 of thirty families. These are natives of very different parts of the world. 

 lie has made a book choke-full of information, valuable to the gardener and 

 farmer, yet, in the words of the Gardeners Chronicle, **It is certain that these 

 practical results will be' a long time iiltering into the minds of those who will 

 eventually profit mo>t by them,'' If the results are so valuable, and if much 

 time must be occupied in reaching tlie understanding of farmers, this slow 

 process cannot begin too soon, nor can its advantages be kept too persistently 

 before their minds. 



"There is weighty and abundant evidence that the flowers of most kinds of 

 plants are constructed so as to be occasionally or habitually cross-fertilized by 

 pollen from anotlier flower, produced either by the same plant, or generally, as 

 we shall hereafter see reason to believe, by a distinct plant. Cross-fertilization 

 is sometimes ensured by the sexes being separated, and in a large number of 

 cases by tlie pollen and stigma of tlie same flower being matured at different 

 times. It is also ensured, in many cases, by mechanical contrivances of won- 

 derful beauty, preventing the impregnation of the flowers by their own pollen. 

 Again, there is a class, in which the ovules absolutely refuse to be fertilized by 

 pollen from the same plant, but can be fertilized by pollen from any other 

 individual of the same si)ecies. There are also very many species which are 

 partially sterile witli their own pollen. Jjustly, there is a large class in which 

 the flowers present no apparent obstacle of any kind to self fertilization ; nev- 

 ertheless these plants are frequently intercrossed, owing to the prepotency of 

 pollen from anotlier individual or variety over the plant's own pollen." 



There are, however, some cases which seem especially contrived for self-fer- 

 tilization. Tiie number is much smaller than Mould be supposed by a hasty 

 observation. 



Andrew Knight, more than seventy-five years ago, said that " Nature intended 

 that a sexual intercourse should take place between neighboring plants of the 

 same species." Mr. Knight, and many since his time, practiced cross-breed- 

 ing plants quite extensively, for the purpose of obtaining new and improved 

 varieties. At present, there are many experts in this art in Europe and in this 

 countrv. 



By cross-fertilization is meant "■ a cross bstwcen distinct plants which were 

 raised from seeds and not from cuttings or buds." In the proper sense, then, 



* The Effects of Cross and Self-fcrtiUzation of Plants, by Charles Darwm. 



