26 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



will notice that the word denoting the subject under consideration is spelled 

 or pronounced in several different ways. 



AK ADVERSE OPINION". 



Several of the first quotations are from an editorial in the Gardeners' Chron- 

 icle, page 492, October, 1875. He writes: ''Incorrect terms are a great 

 hindrance to the progress of natural science, because they not only convey 

 false ideas but imply their acceptance as acknowledged truths. Now, if ever a 

 word was unluckily chosen to express a factor process, actual, possible, or only 

 wished for, it is the word acclimatization. And tlie worst of it is, that it 

 is now too late to make a change. Twenty or thirty years ago the world's expec- 

 tations in this matter were probably more sanguine than they are at present; 

 for endeavors made have not been crowned with the success anticipated." 

 The author mentions begonias and some other plants as cases in which horticul- 

 tural art has not been able to effect the slightest change in their constitutions 

 in that respect, — they remain exactly what they were from the first. These 

 plants were propagated by cuttings or layers. He adds, " What have the ac- 

 climators acclimated?" May we not venture to reply, 'Nothing whatever;' 

 because, as we believe, the hardiness found to exist in plants and animals after 

 their introduction to this and other countries, was already innate and inherent 

 in them before they left their native shores. Their change of home has sim- 

 ply tested their robustness, but has not altered their constitution. Acclimatiz- 

 ation has failed (in Britain) to make Bobbett's corn the staff of life ; it has 

 not made New Zealand flax grow as luxuriantly out of doors here as in New Zea- 

 land; it has not even acclimated the potato. With tiiis experience of facts, 

 may we not be permitted to doubt whether the process which we understand 

 by acclimatization really and practically exists at all? Strange plants and 

 animals introduced into countries, new to them, have immediately shown 

 their fitness for the soil and climate and have multiplied and spread to such 

 an extent as to become naturalized." Of this class of plants I may mention 

 most of our weeds, nearly all of which are imported. In Australia, New Zea- 

 land, and many parts of South America, some of the introduced plants thrive 

 better than the native plants and are fast crowding them out. The editorial 

 so liberally quoted, says that the term "naturalization" would be better. 

 "What maybe effected by natural causes, in the course of millions of years, we 

 cannot tell, what is done in the way of acclimatization by human agency during 

 one or several human lifetimes, appears often to be infinitesimal and quite inap- 

 preciable. The original nature of plants is little changed by art. Much that 

 has been written, and more of what is believed concerning acclimatization, is 

 sheer fallacy. But little of actual fact can be sifted out of the masses of chaff 

 to prove that any plant is one whit hardier than it was when first imported." 



OTHER OPINIONS. 



The late .Mr. McNab of Scotland, was an eminent botanist and lived a long 

 life as a most successful gardener. In 1874, in his opening address before the 

 Botanical Society of Edinburgh, he says: "I am one of those skeptical indi- 

 viduals who do not believe in it [acclimatization], and still maintain the 

 opinion that a plant is as hardy when first introduced into this country as it is 

 after being half a century in cultivation." He gives numerous examples " to 

 show that certain plants, althougii long grown in a conservatory and planted 

 out will thrive during a series of good seasons, but will succumb after an 

 adverse summer followed by a severe winter." 



