THE MINNESOTA 



HORTICULTURIST. 



VOL. 35. SEPTEMBER, 1907. No. 9. 



CAN WE BREED HARDINESS INTO TREES AND 



PLANTS? 



CHAS. G. PATTEN, CHARLES CITY, IOWA. 



Prof. L. H. Bailey put, in a terse sentence, a thought that had 

 been in the minds of botanists and plant breeders everywhere, to-wit : 

 that "plants are infinitely variable ;" a companion sentence from 

 Luther Burbank is, "the power to" improve our useful and orna- 

 mental plants is unlimited." These two quotations will serve to 

 introduce this brief and imperfect paper. 



If plants are infinitely variable they will vary in the direction of 

 the most important demands of their environment, whether of cold 

 or heat, of dryness or humidity, or toward any combination of these 

 conditions. 



No one, I think, will question the fact that fleetness and endurance 

 has been bred into the horse, and endurance is^ but another name 

 for hardiness in plants, and the strongest force in variation appears 

 to me to be in the direction of the plant to maintain life under every 

 condition. 



The best example of the fact of variation and adaptation that 

 occurs to my mind is to be found in catalpa speciosa, the native 

 habitat of which is mostly between latitudes 323^ and 37>4, in the 

 lower part of Indiana, Illinois, in Missouri, Tennessee and Mississ- 

 ippi, and in much smaller numbers on the west side of the Mississippi 

 river in Arkansas — though I believe originally abundant in Louisiana. 



It will be noticed that its home was in the lower valley of the 

 Mississippi, and along it and its tributaries, near their junction with 

 the great river, in a mild climate and with abundant moisture. 



Today this tree is at home three to four hundred miles north of 

 where nature had established its home, and in fifty years hence by 

 careful selection will doubtless be adapted to nearly five hundred 

 miles north of its original home, proving most conclusively that 

 through selection hardiness, or adaptation of trees to a colder climate, 

 can be secured — and this has been accomplished for the most part 

 with an almost unconscious effort. 



