PLANTS FROM EAST ASIA, ETC. 109 



think it is much more subject to insects than our own. We also have the 

 Scotch Pine which is a hardy tree. There is also the Norway maple which 

 is an exceedingly rapid growing tree. Now, in regard to fruit, there 

 is the question of protection, bending down and covering the soil — but 

 the mere protection of other trees is a very important factor in influencing 

 hardiness ; and I know in Manitoba, where it is very difficult to grow 

 apple trees, some of our most successful nurserymen errow the trees be- 

 tween rows of celery. I suppose this protection which they might find 

 in no other place, has enabled them to grow these trees. 



Dr. Britton— Mr. Chairman, as having perhaps a remote bearing on 

 this subject, I would like to call your attention to the Century Plant in 

 the Island of Jamaica, from which I have just returned. That is a species 

 which is in Jamaica, very abundant, in all the arid southern portions of 

 the Island. Now, that plant has a diametric range of five thousand feet 

 in temperature. That is, it extends right from the shore on the dry side 

 of the island right up to the tropical station on the mountain side towards 

 the south, and that evidently is subject — you see the same species is 

 there — to all the variations from the highest to the dryest kind of tropi- 

 cal temperature up to the temperate zone, which is the temperature 

 at Cinchona, because Cinchona is one of the most delightful places for 

 residence in the world. It occurs right on those mountain sides, ap- 

 parently not affected by temperature, but apparently influenced by hu- 

 midity. This is an example of the species which goes according to the 

 humidity, but does not seem to care very much about temperature. As 

 bearing also on the subject, in a less degree, there is the same history 

 in the case of Jamaica in the Pilocereus. The species which I found in 

 other lands, is the same. I have found it in other places just the same 

 as this. It grows on the south side to a height of two hundred feet, 

 higher, in fact, than any other species of Pilocereus in Jamaica that I have 

 observed. Instances might be multiplied, I am sure, showing the great 

 latitudinous range on the south side of the island, apparently regardless 

 of conditions of temperature. 



The President — It has been suggested that the most profitable way 

 to spend the afternoon would be to look around the garden and see 

 specimens growing here that would illustrate many of the things that are 

 under discussion at our meeting. 



It was then moved by Mr. A. L. Willis, seconded by Prof. N. E. 

 Hansen, that the thanks of the Conference be given to the American 

 Institute, and to the New York Botanical Garden, for the courtesies 

 accorded them. 



There being no other business before the Conference, adjournment 

 was then taken. 



