88 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the late Thomas Andrew Knight. He has recorded an experiment 

 with a seedling camellia which grew very tall and vigorous without 

 blooming, and which he bent down and twisted, and inarched on 

 itself, for the purpose of bringing it into bloom, but without suc- 

 cess. All trees, said Mr. Hovey, require a certain period of time 

 to perfect a certain kind of sap. Some require more time than 

 others, the Bartlctt pear fruiting on young trees at four or five 

 years from the bud, and on grafts in old trees in two years, while 

 the Dix requires fifteen or twenty years to commence bearing, and 

 then gives onl}' a few pears from the top of the tree, and does not 

 come into full bearing until about five years later. The Harvard 

 requires about twenty j^ears, and the Urbaniste from fifteen to 

 twenty, except when grafted on the quince, which acts on it like 

 premature old age. The plan adopted by Col. Wilder was attended 

 with too much labor and expense to be carried out on a large scale. 

 It would not pay nurserymen to graft five hundred azaleas to ac- 

 celerate their bloom, the greater part of which must be thrown 

 away as worthless. His method was to winter the plants under 

 the greenhouse stage, placing them out doors in summer. Inarch- 

 ing requires much room and considerable care, and is now seldom 

 practised, grafting the young wood being substituted. When 

 plants are forced by using manures or fertilizers, in any consider- 

 able quantity, to accelerate the growth, the flowers are injured in 

 form and substance. 



Mr. Wilder said that Mr. Hovey had stated very clearly the 

 principle that maturity is requisite to enable a plant to produce 

 flowers and fruit. Nevertheless, Mr. Knight was mistaken in the 

 opinion that a graft could not be made to produce fruit before the 

 seedling from which it was taken, as we have proved over and 

 over again. He agreed with Mr. Hovey as to the economical 

 principle involved in his experiments, but he was desirous to see, 

 as early as possible, whether he had among his seedlings anything 

 better than we previously possessed. 



Mr. Hovey said it was well to bear in mind that it had been 

 taught that plants raised from cuttings, a process analogous to 

 grafting, would not produce flowers sooner than seedlings, but this 

 was disproved by Dr. Dix, who raised a double white camellia 

 from a cutting. Some of Mr. Hovey's seedling camellias, the 

 Anne Marie Hovey and C. M. Hovey for instance, were from five 

 to ten years old before flowering. The tops of the young plants 



