§4- NATIONAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS. 



There was an unusual activity in the discussion of general 

 questions relating to horticulture during 1890. Perhaps the 

 most important discussion is that upon 



Legal cofitrol of Jiewvarieties. — The question of affording some 

 legal protection to originators or holders of new varieties, as in- 

 ventors are protected, was brought prominently into notice early 

 in the year by A. L. Bancroft of San Francisco, through the me- 

 dium of the California State Horticultural and Floral Societies. 

 As the question is not entirely new, it may be well to consider 

 it from its beginning. The measures so far advanced to afford 

 legal control of varieties fall more or less distincftly under 

 three heads : the plant patent, plant registration or certifica- 

 tion, and copyright or trade-mark. Definite propositions for 

 the plant patent appear to have originated with Jacob Moore, 

 of Attica, New York, who, so early as 1874, drew, up a bill 

 for the protection of ' ' the plant author. "* This bill was '■ ' de- 

 signed to supply, in part, the deficiencies of a bill introduced 

 in the legislature last winter for this purpose." From that 

 time until this — and probably even before that time — meas- 

 ures to secure a plant patent have been discussed. Thomas 

 Meehan, editor of the Gardener' s Monthly, always opposed 

 the proposition, however, for the very sufficient reason that 

 it is impracticable and impossible. He has thrown his influ- 

 ence, however, into the copyright or trade-mark scheme. 

 Five or six years ago, Jacob Moore again proposed the plant 

 patent system in an independent circular, and as this circular 

 does not appear to have been preserved in permanent form, 

 it is here inserted as a contribution to the histor}^ of our sub- 

 ject : 



''The plant patent. The originator of a valuable new 

 fruit, vegetable, or ornamental plant should have the exclu- 

 sive privilege of giving it a name, and the exclusive right to 

 grow, disseminate and sell it. This means in reference to 

 class 3, below specified, to disseminate and sell to be grown. 



* Gard. Monthly, xvi. 361. 



(112) . 



