THE ANNUAL MEETING. 171 



President Lyou remarked that the discovery of Prof. Beal was of great 

 value, and in a paper which he expected to read to the convention during the 

 day he had taken occasion to refer to the same matter as it had been presented 

 by the professor at Kochester, and wMtii the suggestion that whoever would go 

 further and determine peculiarities of leaf, twig and bark, so as to assist in the 

 detection of varieties in the nursery row, would confer a great favor upon the 

 purchaser of trees, and oftentimes enable him to save time and money. Tiie 

 great want among pomologists to-day is some means of detecting the fraudu- 

 lent tricks of nurserymen and tree dealers, and, if information could be dis- 

 seminated that would enable men who purchase trees to distinguish varieties, 

 even of the leading sorts, it would be a wholesome check on the dishonesty of 

 a large class of venders of nursery stock. 



Prof. Beal. — I have not attempted anything as yet beyond the flowers of apples, 

 and I have found my investigations in what seems to be a very limited field, 

 have taken a very considerable amount of time for a little accurate informa- 

 tion. 



Mr. Lyon. — To a considerable extent we even now determine peaches and 

 strawberries by their flowers, and the glands in the peach leaf have for a long 

 time been employed in designating varietie^^, but I can see there is a large field 

 of investigation which will require an immense amount of work to develop; I 

 am glad Prof. Beal has had the courage to lay hold of it. 



Prof. Beal. — As regards the detection of varieties in the nursery by peculiar- 

 ities of twig, bark, stem and leaf, I doubt whether we shall ever make any 

 more marked progress than we have already attained, for I believe it is true in 

 vegetable life as in the animal kingdom, that the different forms in their early 

 stages of growth are so similar, as to exhibit scarcely any distinguishing char- 

 acteristics. But at puberty the peculiarities develop rapidly, and 1 believe that in 

 the flowers of fruits, we shall tind a valuable assistance in matters of nomen- 

 clature. 



Mr. Taylor, of Saugatuck. — Has Prof. Beal any record of the characters he 

 has found in the flowers of different varieties, as established by other ob- 

 servers in other localities? 



Prof. Beal. — Ko, I have not; in truth the field is new and there is no record 

 of anything to compare with my own. 



H. P. llanford. — I think the scheme will fail as far as any utility is con- 

 cerned, because of the variations caused by different soils and climate. 



J. N. Stearns, Kalamazoo. — I am quite in accord with Mr. I^yon's thought 

 that what w^e need most to-day is some means by which trees can be dett-cted 

 in their varieties with no flowers or fruit to aid one, and I would like to see the 

 most minute description of all the leading varieties placed in the records of 

 our transactions. 



Emmons Buell. — I apprehend that with all the progress we are liable to 

 make in this direction, we shall hear the horn of Gabriel before the people 

 will acquire an amount of this kind of knowledge that will be of any assist- 

 ance to them practically. 



Judge Kamsdell. — 1 heartily endorse the last statement. I doubt if we shall 

 ever make any progress in this direction that will be of practical utility. We 

 shall have to depend, as buyers of trees, upon the 'Mionest nurseryman " for 

 our varieties. The leaves would be the best means of detecting tne variety; 

 but suppose I go into Mr. Lyon's nursery in midsummer, and with a perfect 

 knowledge of varieties pick out my trees so as to have them true to name, 

 what check is this upon him if he desires to cheat me? Eseii if I put a string 



