154 PresidenVs Address. 



to botanists and florists, that further remarks in regard to 

 them are deemed unnecessary. 



In treating of the acquirement of hardier varieties or 

 forms of plants it may be supposed that allusion should be 

 made to the acclimatisation theory which has been urged 

 and defended by some horticultural writers, and I here do 

 so by remarking that I have no belief in tljat theory, the 

 advocates of which maintain that a plant, although only 

 perpetuated by division, such as cuttings, layers, grafts, or 

 buds, can be rendered more hardy by gradually exposing 

 and inuring it to lower temperatures. The Aucuha 

 ja;ponica, of which the well-known spotted-leaved variety 

 introduced to Britain in 1783 was the only representative 

 till that eminent botanical collector, the late Mr Robert 

 Fortune, sent the male and other varieties from Japan in 

 1861, has often been deduced as incontrovertible evidence 

 in favour of the acclimatisation theory, the defender of it 

 affirming that when first introduced it required hothouse 

 protection, and although only perpetuated by cuttings or 

 layers it gradually became so hardy as ultimately to with- 

 stand our severest winters. No proof exists, however, as 

 to its originally requiring hothouse protection, but, like 

 many other exotics, having been deemed deserving of hot- 

 house treatment, it merely got it by mistake ; and looking 

 back to the three remarkably severe winters of 1837-38, 

 1860-61, and of December 1879, w^hen the temperature fell 

 to about zero, their killing effects on the old Aucuha were 

 remarkably alike. And, curiously enough, the Aucuha 

 japonica is now looked upon as one of the best proofs 

 that hardier varieties can only be got from among plants 

 that have been reared from seeds, hence in " nursery 

 breaks ; " of these, some are perfectly uninjured, while 

 others, as wellas the old spotted-leaved variety, have 

 been more or less severely cut down by the frost of last 

 winter. 



The older kinds of our favourite fruit trees, which have 

 been perpetuated by budding or grafting, afford unanswer- 

 able evidence against acclimatisation ; for example, the 

 Ribston Pippin apple, which is supposed to have originated 

 at Ribston Hall from seeds sown about 1688, and the 

 Jargonelle pear, which has been still longer in cultivation, 



