During- Queen Victoria's Reign. 15 



these will retain their good qualities unimpaired twenty-five or fifty years hence 

 no one can say ; though in all probability, as they themselves are instances of the 

 survival of the fittest, in so far that they were chosen from thousands of less 

 promising seedlings, several of them will doubtless greatly exceed the limit of age 

 reached by older sorts. 



In the Maincrop and Late sections, nothing has yet approached the Magnum 

 Bonum in popularity, and it is quite as good now as when introduced by my house 

 twenty-one years ago. There are many other varieties of a similar character, 

 but on the closest scrutiny I have failed to detect any point in which they differ 

 from the Magnum Bonum, and I have generally found, when any difference has been 

 suggested, that the sorts in question were not grown alongside under the same 

 conditions, or else that the seed had been obtained from different sources, a change 

 of seed often producing a marked divergence in two rows of the same variety. 



I must not leave the subject of Potatoes without mentioning such names as 

 James Paterson, Robert Fenn, James Clark, Archibald Findlay, A. Dean, and 

 Chas. Ross, all of whom have devoted many years, perhaps the best years of a 

 lifetime, to the improvement of the noble tuber, and to these men the whole 

 horticultural fraternity and the community at large are greatly indebted. 



CONCLUSION. 



We have now passed in review all the leading Vegetables, and imperfect as 

 this paper has been, I think it will be admitted that, in its effect on the promotion 

 of health and daily comfort amongst all classes of society, the progress in Vegetable 

 Cultivation during Queen Victoria's reign is worthy to rank with the achievements 

 in lighting, locomotion, and sanitation. 



What the progress in the next fifty or sixty years may be no one can foretell ; 

 but on behalf of the seed trade, I venture to express the hope that it may be 

 accompanied by a corresponding decline in the demand for older and inferior sorts. 

 The labour and anxiety of keeping the rapidly increasing number of varieties 

 true to name can only be fully understood by those acquainted with the details 

 of seed growing. 



