December 31, 1874. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTIOOLTDKE AND COTTAGE GABDENfiB. 



580 



the old Nonpareil Apple was known in the time of Queen 

 Elizabeth ; that the White Benrrc Pears of France have been 

 propagated from the earliest times ; and that Golden Pippins, 

 St. Michael Pears, and others said to have run out, were still 

 to be had in good condition. 



Coming down to the present year, a glance through the pro- 

 ceedings of pomological societies, and the debates of farmers' 

 clubs, brings out the same difference of opinion. The testi- 

 mony is nearly equally divided. Perhaps the larger number 

 speak of the deterioration and failure of particular old sorts ; 

 but where the question turns on " wearing out," the positive 

 evidence of vigorous trees and sound fruits is the most telling. 

 A little positive testimony outweighs a good deal of negative. 

 This cannot readily be explained away, while the failures may 

 be, by exhaustion of soil, incoming of disease, or alteration of 

 <;limate or circumstances. On the other hand, it may be urged 

 that, if a variety of this sort is fated to become decrepid and 

 die out, it is not bound to die out all at once, and everywhere 

 at the same time. It would be expected first to give way 

 wherever it is weakest, from whatever cause. This considera- 

 tion has an important bearing upon the final question — Are 

 old varieties of this kind on the way to die out on account of 

 their ago or any inherent limit of vitality '! 



Here again Mr. Knight took an extreme view. In his 

 essay in the " Philosophical Transactions," published in the 

 year 1810, he propounded the theory not merely of a natural 

 limit to varieties from grafts and cuttings, but even that they 

 would not survive the natural term of the life of the seedling 

 tree from which they were originally taken. Whatever may 

 have been his view of the natural term of the life of a tree, and 

 of a cutting being merely a part of the individual that pro- 

 duced it, there is no doubt that he laid himself open to the 

 effective replies which were made from all sides at the time, 

 and have lost none of their force since. Weeping Willows, 

 Bread Fruits, Bananas, Sugar-cane, Tiger Lilies, Jerusalem 

 Artichokes, and the like, have been propagated for a long 

 while in this way, without evident decadence. 



Moreover, the analogy upon which his hypothesis is founded 

 win not hold. Whether or not one adopts the present writer's 

 conception that individuality is not actually reached or main- 

 tained in the vegetable world, it is clear enough that a common 

 plant or tree is not an individual in the sense that a horse or 

 man, or any one of the higher animals is, that it is an indi- 

 vidual only in the sense that a branching zoophyte or mass of 

 coral is. Solvitur crescendo. Tho tree and the branch equally 

 demonstrate that they are not individuals, by being divided 

 with impunity and advantage, with no loss of life, but much 

 increase. It looks odd enough to see a writer like Mr. Sisley 

 reproducing the old hypothesis in so bare a form as this : — 

 " I am prepared to maintain that varieties are individuals, and 

 that as they are born they must die, like all other individuals." 

 " We know that Oaks, Sequoias, and other trees live several 

 centuries, but how many we do not exactly know. But that 

 they must die, no one in his senses will dispute." Now, what 

 people in their senses do dispute is, not that the tree will die, 

 but that other trees, established from cuttings of it, will die 

 with it ? 



But does it follow from all this that nou-sexually propagated 

 varieties are endowed with the same power of unlimited dura- 

 tion that are possessed by varieties and species propagated 

 sexually — i.e., by seed? Those who think so jump too soon 

 at their conclusion. For, as to the facts, it is not enough to 

 point out the diseases, or the trouble in the soil, or the atmo- 

 sphere to which certain old fruits are succumbing, nor to prove 

 that a parasitic fungus (I'eronospora infestans) is what is tho 

 matter with Potatoes. For how else would constitutional 

 debility, if such there be, more naturally manifest itself than 

 in such increased liability or diminished resistance to such 

 attacks ? And if you say that, anyhow, such varieties do not 

 die of old age — meaning that each individual attacked does not 

 die of old age, but of manifest disease — it may be asked in 

 return, what individual man ever dies of old age in any other 

 sense than of a similar inability to resist invasions which in 

 earlier years would have produced no noticeable effect ? Aged 

 people die of a slight cold or a slight accident ; but the inevit- 

 able weakness that attends old age is what makes these slight 

 attacks fatil. 



Finally, there is a philosophical argument which tells strongly 

 for some limitation of the duration of non-sesually-propagated 

 forms, one that probably Knight never thought of, but which 

 we should not have expected recent writers to overlook. When 

 Mr. Darwin announced the principle that cross-fertilisation 



between the individuals of a species is the plan of nature, and 

 is practically so universal that it fairly sustains his inference 

 that no hermaphrodite species continually self-fertilised would 

 continue to exist, he made it clear to all who apprehend and 

 receive the principle that a series of plants propagated by buds 

 only must have a weaker hold of life than a series reproduced 

 by seed. For the former is the closest possible kind of close 

 breeding. Upon this ground such varieties may be expected 

 ultimately to die out. 



The conclusion of the matter from the scientific point of 

 view is, that sexually-propagated varieties or races, although 

 liable to disappear through change, need not be expected to 

 wear out, and there is no proof that they do : also, that nou- 

 sexually-propagated varieties, though not liable to change, 

 may theoretically be expected to wear out, but to be a very 

 long time about it. — {Ncii^ York Trihnnc.) 



THE SNOWBERRIES. 



Botanists and gardeners alike have got things a little mixed 

 in regard to these plants. Dr. Asa Gray has recently contri- 

 buted a paper to the Linnean Society's Journal, clearing up 

 some matters in relation to the botanical question ; and we 

 may as well say a few words as to the other. The common 

 Bed Saowberry of our gardens — the Indian Currant of some 

 locahties — is usually referred to in our nursery catalogues as 

 Symphoria glomerata. This is Pursh's name. The generally 

 accepted name is that of Michaux, which is Symphorioarpus 

 vulgaris. It is rather common in shrubberies, but not so 

 much as it deserves to be. Dr. Gray makes eight species ; but 

 this is the only one with red fruit. Dr. Gray, however, de- 

 scribes a new species found in Nevada, with flowers half an 

 inch long, naming it S. longiflorus, the fruit of which he has 

 not seen. It is probably white. The other species — common 

 in gardens — is the White Snowberry, and is S. racemosus, also 

 of Michaux. These two are the only ones that seem so far to 

 have got into cultivation. There is another species allied to 

 the White Snowberry, which grows west of the Mississippi, 

 and east of the Rocky Mountains, which is a stronger grower 

 than that in our gardens, and is worth introducing. This is 

 S. occidentalis of R. Brown. There is another very pretty 

 little bushy species in Colorado, which most of us who have 

 collected have named in our herbariums S. montanus. This 

 Dr. Gray now refers to one previously named by him in 

 Wright's " Plants of Texas," S. rotundifolius. The true 

 S. montanus is a Mexican species. Three supposed Mexican 

 ones, including S. montanus, are united under the one name 

 S. microphyllus. The other species not yet in cultivation is 

 S. mollis of Nuttall, in California, and S. oreophilus, which 

 also has been confused with S. rotundifolius, as S. montanus 

 in Colorado herbariums. In the paper Dr. Gray has some in- 

 teresting observations on the nature of the fruit, showing that 

 it is not a berry as some botanists believe, but a species of 

 drupe. — (American Gardeners' Monthly.) 



ONCIDIUM LEUCOCHILUM. 



The subject of our present illustration is a member of one 

 of the largest families of Orchidaceous plants, comprising as 

 it does several hundred species and varieties, the majority of 

 which are deserving a place in the amateur's collection. As a 

 genus, Oncidium is nearly alUed to Odontoglossum, but differs 

 principally in the shape and form of the labeUum or lip. 



The prevailing colour in the flowers of the various species 

 and varieties of Oncidium is some shade of yellow, but there 

 are some striking exceptions to this rule, and 0. leucoohilum, 

 or the White-lipped Oncidium, is one of them. Oncidiums 

 have a wide geographical range, for whilst some are found at 

 elevations ranging from 7 to 10,000 feet, others descend to low 

 elevations and enjoy tropical heat, and many are found scat- 

 tered through various parts of Brazil and the West Indian 

 islands 



Oncidium leuoochilum was first introduced to this country 

 some forty years ago from the mountain regions of Guatemala, 

 and I have invariably found it succeed best with me under 

 cool treatment ; but although this species has grown satis- 

 factorily with me, I saw it some few years since infinitely finer 

 in the then rich collection of the late Thomas Dawson, Esq., 

 of Meadow Bank, under the management of Mr. Anderson. 

 It thrives admirably in the company of such plants as Odonto- 

 glossum grande. 



In potting, use good rough fibrous peat and sphagnum 



