24 CHARACTER, HISTORY AND 



shrubs produced therefrom may bear, will exhibit, iii combination, the 

 predominant qualities of each of the species, which was employed in the 

 process of hybridization. 



While a student of medicine, the attention of Van Mons was drawn to 

 the experiments which had been made to create new fruits ; and it having 

 been satisfactorily ascertained, that the seeds of the best kinds of grafted 

 fruit had never produced trees which yielded extraordinary specimens, he 

 determined to try a process, which was founded on the developements of 

 nature, in the occasional appearance of a wild tree bearing an excellent 

 variety. This result indicated that it was probably effected by repro- 

 duction, in some accidental manner, through several generations. He 

 therefore planted seeds of small Avild pears, and selected, from generation 

 to generation, the young plants whose appearance indicated the most 

 favorable characteristics of the ameliorated varieties. A change in the 

 fruit was perceivable in the third generation, and, in the seventh, all the 

 trees bore good pears, and a great number Avere pre-eminent for their 

 excellent qualities. The experiment was continued for fifty years ; and he 

 was amply rewarded for his indomitable perseverance, by the addition of 

 several hundred ameliorated varieties, which was thus made to the cata- 

 logue of pears ; many of them considered equal to any that were before 

 known. 



During the period in which this remarkable and long continued process 

 was carried on, the principle was adopted in an attempt to ameliorate 

 apples and peaches ; and it was ascertained that the former became good 

 in the fifth, and the latter in the third generation. 



It is earnestly recommended that the experiment should be repeated in 

 this country, by commencing at the point to which nature had arrived, and 

 using the seeds of our best native pears, apples, plums, cherries and 

 peaches, which are taken from the original trees ; for it is probable varieties 

 of greater excellence may be obtained, even in the first generation. 



Since the establishment of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, in 

 1829, great interest has been excited, throughout the country, in relation to 

 the culture of fruits ; and very extensive researches have been made by 

 that valuable institution, and by several of its intelhgent and enterprising 

 members, who are proprietors of large and well managed nurseries, to 

 procure specimens of our native varieties, for the purpose of ascertaining 

 their number and character, as weU as to make collections of the trees, 

 which bore them, from all parts of the United States ; and so successful 

 have they been, that more than eighty kinds of Pears have already been 

 discovered ; some of which are so distinguished, that they have been 

 naturahzed in Europe, and sustain a distinguished position in the Ust of 

 those which have long held the highest rank. 



From some inexplicable cause, the St. Germain, St. Michael, Brown 



