Bailey.] 1^^ [May 1, 



ferences. Illustrations might be drawa from every field of the organic 

 creation, but I choose a few from plants because these are the most 

 neglected and I am most familiar with them. These are given to illus- 

 trate how important external stimuli are in originating variation, and how 

 it is that some of these variations persist. 



Let me begin by saying that a good gardener loves his plants. Now, a 

 good gardener is one who grows good plants, and good plants are very 

 unlike poor plants. They are unlike because the gardener's love for 

 them has made them so. The plants were all alike in November ; in 

 January, the good gardener's plants are strong and clean, with large 

 dense leaves, a thick stem, and an abundance of perfect flowers ; the poor 

 gardener's plants are small and mean, with curled leaves, a thin hard 

 stem, and a few imperfect flowers. You will not believe now that the 

 two lots were all from the same seed-pod three months ago. The good 

 gardener likes to save his own seeds or make his own cuttings ; and next 

 year his plants will be still more unlike his neighbor's. The neighbor 

 tries this seed and that, reads this bulletin and that, but all avails noth- 

 ing simply because he does not grow good plants. He does not care for 

 them tenderlj^ as a fond mother cares for a child. The good gardener 

 knows that the temperature of the water and the air, the currents in the 

 atmosphere, the texture of the soil, and all the little amenities and com- 

 forts which plants so much enjoy, are just the factors which make his 

 plants successful ; and a good crop of anything, whether wheat or beans 

 or apples, is simply a variation. 



And do these unlikenesses survive? Yes, verily ! The greater part of 

 the amelioration of cultivated plants has come about in just this way, — by 

 gradual modifications in the conditions in which they are grown, by 

 means of which unlikenesses arise ; and then by the selection of seeds 

 from the most coveted plants. Even at the present day, there is com- 

 paratively little plant-breeding. The cultivated flora has come up with 

 man, and if it has departed immensely from its wild prototypes, so has 

 man. Tlie greater part of all this has been unconscious and unintended 

 on man's part, but it is none the less real. 



As an illustration of how large the factors of undesigned choice and 

 selection are in the amelioration of the domestic flora, let me ask your 

 attention to the battle of the seed-bags. In the year 1890, the census 

 records show, for the first time, the number of acres in the United States 

 devoted to the growing of seed. I give the acreage of three representa- 

 tive crops, and these figures I have multiplied by the average seed-yields 

 per acre in order to arrive at an approximate estimate of the entire crop 

 produced, and the number of acres which the crop would plant. I have 

 used low averages of yields in order to be on the safe side, and I have 

 likewise used liberal averages of the quantity of seed required to plant an 

 acre when making up the last column : 



