384 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



characteristics of both and stand a good chance to secure the ad- 

 vancement we are after. In our locaHty we have three trees that 

 have come up from an old tree that killed down in 1885. The 

 three trees have been bearing many years. Two of the trees bear 

 perfect Plumb's Cider apples. The other bears fruit which very 

 much resembles the other two in form and in season of keeping, but 

 the color is a deeper red and the quality different. By many it is 

 called better. From the two first we infer the old tree to have been 

 a Plumb's Cider, while we are inclined to the belief that the third 

 tree has sprouted out from the original root where the two were 

 grown solid together', and by this we have a direct combination of 

 two kinds which appears^ to be quite an improvement on the Plumb's 

 Cider. We all well know if these sprouts come up from the root 

 above the union they will produce the original tree, but if from below 

 they might be almost anything else. But if the sprouts have come 

 from the part of root where the cion and lower root have grown 

 solidly into one root, which for common would be about two inches, 

 would it not be quite likely a tree emanating from this solid forma- 

 tion would partake of the characteristics of the two varieties. This 

 one case here is not all. My attention has been called to other very 

 much similar cases in Minnesota. So well am I convinced that 

 this road to success is both feasible and reasonable that I am anxious 

 to see a branch of this line of work commenced at one or more of 

 our experiment stations. 



There is another point finely connected with the above : that the 

 cion which forms the trunk does actually force the original root into 

 subjection and makes the root in a few years conform to the wishes 

 of the cion. Then is there not a show of reason to believe that a 

 root taken from the original root of an old tree might produce a tree 

 that might partake of both varieties ? 



OUR NATIONAL FLOWER. 



MRS. H. F. BROWN, MINNEAPOLIS. 



England has the rose, Scotland the thistle, Ireland the sham- 

 rock, France the lily, and Holland the tulip. Our land is so large, 

 the flora so varied, that it seems better for each state to select its 

 flower and then for the whole country to have for its emlilem the 

 maize (Indian corn). It is so entirely ours, for it was never known 

 till America gave it to the world. In tlie Bible corn is spoken of. 

 but it is a name applied to any grain. Nothing in the history of 

 the ancients gives any evidence of maize being known. So it is 

 purely a product of our country. Then it is so artistic ; every j^art 

 of it lends itself to decoration. It comes out beautifully in carving 



