36 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 



also be safely carried into the domains of chemistry as well, for what is com- 

 mon air and water but Nature's earlier efforts in that line, and our nourishing 

 foods but the result of myriad complex chemical affinities of later date? 



Natural and artificial crossing and hybridizing are among the principal 

 remote causes of nearly all otherwise perplexing or unaccountable sports and 

 strange modifications, and also of many of the now well established species. 

 Variations without immediate antecedent crossing occur always and every- 

 where from a combination of past crossings and environments, for potential 

 adaptations often exist through generations without becoming actual, and when 

 we fully grasp these facts there is nothing mysterious in the sudden appearance 

 of sports ; but still further intelligent crossings produce more immediate results 

 and of great value, not to the plant in its struggle with natural forces, but to 

 man by conserving and guiding its life forces to supply him with food, cloth- 

 ing and innumerable other luxuries and necessities. Plant life is so common 

 that one rarely stops to think how utterly dependent we are upon the quiet but 

 magnificently powerful work which they are constantly performing for us. 



It was once thought that plants varied within the so-called species but very 

 little, and that true species never varied. We have more lately discovered that 

 no two plants are ever exactly alike, each one having its own individuality, and 

 that new varieties having endowments of priceless value, and even distinct 

 new species, can be produced by the plant breeder with the same precision that 

 machinery for locomotion and other useful purposes are produced by the 

 mechanic. 



The evolution and all the variations of plants are simply the means which 

 they employ in adjusting themselves to external conditions : Each plant strives 

 to adapt itself to environment with as little demand upon its forces as possible 

 and still keep up in the race. The best endowed species and individuals win 

 the prize, and by variation as well as persistence. The constantly varying 

 external forces to which all life is everywhere subjected demand that the in- 

 herent internal force shall always be ready to adapt itself or perish. 



The combination and interaction of these innumerable forces embraced in 

 heredity and environment have given us all our bewildering species, none of 

 which ever did or ever will remain constant, for the inherent life force must be 

 pliable or outside forces will sooner or later extinguish it. Thus adaptability 

 as well as perseverance is one of the prime virtues in plant as in human life. 



Plant breeding is the intelligent application of the forces of the human 

 mind in guiding the inherent life forces into useful directions by crossing, to 

 make perturbations or variations of these forces, and by radically changing 

 environments, both of which produce somewhat similar results, thus giving a 

 broader field for selection, which again is simply the persistent application of 

 mental force to guide and fix the perturbed forces in the desired channels. 



Plant breeding is in its earliest infancy. Its possibilities and even its 

 fundamental principles are understood by but few ; in the past it has been 

 mostly dabbling with tremendous forces which have been only partially appre- 

 ciated, and has yet to approach the precision which we expect in the handling 

 of steam or electricity, and notwithstanding the occasional sneers of the ig- 

 norant, these silent forces embodied in plant life have yet a part to play in the 

 regeneration of the race which by comparison will dwarf into insignificance 



