78 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the fleshy envelop does not. If the germ is perfected you may, 

 from that, obtain a plant which will require a shorter season for 

 the perfection of its fruits. 



Rev. A. B. Muzzey thought the Darwinian theory, though not 

 to his mind fully established, gave encouragement to attempt the 

 improvement of plants, and hoped that the remarks of the ex- 

 perienced horticulturists who had preceded him would not have the 

 effect to deter our younger friends from experimenting in the di- 

 rection indicated by the essayist. He thought there was much en- 

 couragement to do so, in the power possessed by the human race of 

 adapting itself to all climates, and asked if this principle could not 

 be carried over into the vegetable world, between which and the 

 animal so many links have been discovered. He hoped that our 

 friends would go on and experiment, and felt sure that, whether 

 they succeeded or failed in acclimating plants, their experiments 

 would shed valuable light on horticulture. Although it was con- 

 tended by some that the climate was less favorable now than for- 

 merly for horticulture, he believed that it was essentially un- 

 changed. 



Mr. Hovey said he would not discourage young men from ex- 

 perimenting, but he had spent so many years in vain attempts at 

 acclimation, that he would not like to have others lose valuable 

 time in repeating them. It was well known that our cultivated 

 strawberries include five distinct species, among which are the 

 Fragaria grandijlora and Chili strawberry {F. Chilensis), natives 

 of Surinam and South America. Before the introduction of these 

 two species no very large strawberries were known, and it is their 

 blood, infused into the native kinds bj'^ fertilization, that has given 

 size to the large English strawberries, so well known, such as 

 Myatt's British Queen, which has been grown to weigh two ounces. 

 But this blood has given tender plants as well as large fruit, and 

 though the British Queen, and others of the same class, no further 

 removed by crossing, are still raised in England, they have all died 

 out in our northern climate. Mr. Hovey received from a friend 

 in Chili seeds of strawberries which he said were nearly two 

 inches in diameter, but the plants raised from them gradually 

 disappeared from the effects of our cold winters, until they were 

 all"'; dead. By repeated hybridizing this tenderness has been 

 worked out and the size retained ; but the acclimation of the 

 species, or even of one or two removes by fertilization, has been a 

 decided failure. 



