CONDITIONS OF PLANT LIFE. 



not only improved the quality of all 

 our plant products, but he has also 

 extended the season of some of our 

 most delicious fruits and vegetables. 

 We have moreover obtained varieties 

 that may be successfully cultivated over 

 much wider ranges of soil and temper- 

 ature than the original types. No more 

 interesting or useful object of endeavor 

 could be set up before the minds of 

 young botanists than some useful 

 achievement of this nature. For in- 

 stance, what a boon it would be for 

 Manitoba if some one would develop 

 a variety of Fyfe wheat, or something 

 as good as the Fyfe, that would invari- 

 ably ripen before the early frosts would 

 strike it. The Ladoga Russian wheat 

 matures early enough to escape the 

 frost, but the bread made from it is 

 of a yellowish color which much lessens 

 the value of this grain in the market. 

 It would be a benefit, too, to develop 

 a tomato or a melon or a Lima bean 

 that would mature anywhere in lower 

 Ontario. He will be a public bene- 

 factor, also, who can by the production 

 of earlier or later varieties of straw- 

 berries, extend the season in which 

 we may enjoy this luscious fruit. 



The development of some of our 

 wild plants or fruits offers a wide field 

 for usefulness. It is idle to suppose 

 that mankind has exhausted the list 

 of plants that might be made available 

 for some one or another of our varied 

 needs or pleasures. The work is going 

 on in various quarters of the world, and 

 young Canadians ought to begin to 



take a hand in it. American horticul- 

 turists are now developing a viburnum 

 (V. opulus), which is quite common in 

 this country, too, and which is valuable 

 as an ornamental bush, not only on 

 account of its rich deep green foliage, 

 but also because of its exceedingly 

 beautiful red fruit clusters. To people 

 of a practical turn of mind this vibur- 

 num will, moreover, be commended by 

 the facts that the fruit yields a table 

 jelly of surpassing excellence, and the 

 bark contains a medicinal principle of 

 great value. Americans have also re- 

 cently introduced for garden cultivation 

 a dwarf Juneberry which, they declare, 

 produces bountifully a simple fruit 

 which suits many people. There is 

 yet a fine opportunity for some aspiring 

 young Canadian botanist to develop a 

 valuable garden fruit out of our com- 

 mon May apple. Most of us know 

 what a rich tropical flavor the fruit of 

 this plant has. But the fruit is small, 

 and the fruit-bearing plants compara- 

 tively rare and unproductive. If some 

 one would make a study of the con- 

 ditions under which this plant thrives 

 best, by judicious selection and culti- 

 vation he would probably be able in 

 time to increase the productiveness of 

 the plant, the size of the fruit, and the 

 proportionate quantity of pulp it con- 

 tains, without sacrificing its present fine 

 flavor, and here would be an achieve- 

 ment worthy of fame. — From an ad- 

 dress by A. Stevenson, before the 

 Woodstock Horticultural Society. 



450 



