262 



THE CANADIAN HOKTICtTLTtTRIST. 



since I first called the attention of this 

 Society to the great importance of pro- 

 ducing fruit from seed, in order to 

 originate and obtain such varieties as 

 might be adapted to the varied climate 

 and sections of our ever-increasing and 

 immense territory. 



" It has long been known that varie- 

 ties raised on our own soils, and in our 

 localities, are generally better suited to 

 our various regions than those from 

 foreign lands, and although we have 

 some varieties from abroad of great ex- 

 cellence and wide adaptation, there are, 

 comparatively, only a few out of the 

 thousands of foreign kinds which we 

 have proved in the last fifty years, that 

 now remain in general cultivation. 

 Formerly the accessions to our catalogue 

 were from the Old World ; now they 

 are mostly of American origin, and so 

 it will continue to be in future time. 

 These are benefactions not only to our 

 country, but the world. He that origi- 

 nates a new and valuable fruit, suited 

 to general cultivation, is as much a 

 benefactor of mankind as he who dis- 

 covers a new principle in science which 

 increases the comfort and happiness of 

 our race. 



" Natural fertilization, unaided by the 

 hand of man, is as old as creation ; but 

 the knowledge of manual fertilization, 

 the ability of man to assist nature in the 

 process of improvement, seems to have 

 been mostly withheld from us until the 

 present age. Wonderful is this fact, 

 but it is not more so than the unlimit- 

 ed extent to which it may be carried 

 by the genius and sagacity of him who 

 would co-operate with nature in this 

 enchanting labor. 



" Strange, indeed, that this art should 

 have been held in suspense for so many 

 ages, nor until our own time to be 

 brought into practical use. But, thanks 

 to the Disposer of all temporal con- 

 cerns, it has now come as the harbinger I 



of a progress which is to revolutionize 

 and improve the fi'uits of the earth 

 while time shall last. Thanks, too, to 

 Knight, Herbert, Lindley, Darwin, 

 Gray, and other teachers of later time, 

 for the lessons of wisdom, which have 

 encouraged us to prosecute this most 

 noble work. 



" The process of fecundation was 

 know far back in the centuries of the 

 past, but not for the production of new 

 and improved varieties of plants. From 

 the days of Pliny, to the present time, 

 the custom of suspending the blossoms 

 of the date palm over the trusses of the 

 fruit-bearing trees, was known to be 

 necessary for the production of fruit. 

 So Tournefort and Linnaeus understood 

 the sexual order of plants ; but we have 

 no facts to show, so far as I know, that 

 either of these writers had a knowledge 

 that the crossing of different species and 

 varieties would produce from the seed 

 a new variety which would possess in a 

 greater or less degree the characteristics 

 of the parent plants, and it is doubtful 

 whether Duhamel, Van Mons, or Nois- 

 ette, was acquainted with this wonder- 

 ful art for the indefinite improvement 

 of our fruits. 



*' This is the art that doth help nature, 

 and great as has been the progress in 

 our time, it is but as the dawn of that I 

 day when every section of our varied ■ 

 climes shall be furnished with products 

 of the earth as well adapted to each as 

 the people who inhabit them. How 

 grand the acquisitions of this art in our 

 day ! It is only about fifty years, since 

 Mr. Hovey, myself, or other cultivators 

 of our country, attempted the hybridi- 

 zation of fruits or flowers. Now the 

 knowledge of this art is as well under- 

 stood as the cultivation of the soil. 

 These are the means provided by an all- 

 wise Providence for the improvement of 

 our fruits. Would that Prince, Down- 

 ing, Brinckle, and those other pioneers 

 who have gone before us, could now 



