EAKLY FLOWERING OF PLANTS. 93 



Mr. Hovey also exhibited a camellia cutting two years old, in 

 flower, taken from an old plant, and confirming the inference 

 drawn from the azalea cutting, that by propagating from cuttings 

 of old plants we can accelerate the production of flowers. It is a 

 great satisfaction when we can accelerate the flowering of seed- 

 ling plants, so as to judge of their merits earlier. 



Marshall P. Wilder exhibited a flower of azalea Marie Le Febvre, 

 and said it was remarkable how from the original Azalea Indica 

 such large flowers as these were produced. The first importation 

 was A. Indica alba, and the wonderful development that had 

 resulted from it by hybridizing, was the strongest inducement to 

 continue the practice. We get such things by hybridizing, as 

 Nature herself never thought of. He did not believe that Adam 

 in Eden had such flowers as these. He began low down. 



Mr. Hovey said that once in a while Nature steps in and pro- 

 duces something surpassing all that man can accomplish, and 

 instanced the Duchesse d' Angouleme pear, which was found 

 growing wild in a hedge in France. In such productions Nature 

 seems to surpass herself. 



Mr. Wilder did not believe that the Duchesse d' Angouleme 

 pear grew up without being naturally impregnated by the bees or 

 wind, or that Van Mons could have practised on his own theory, 

 for natural impregnation would continually have interfered 

 with it. 



Mr. Hovey remarked that Darwin was not the first to suggest 

 the theory of selection, for Dr. Van Mons' theory was essentially 

 a theory of evolution and development. 



Dr. G. F. Waters expressed the opinion that the small size of 

 the pots had something to do with the early flowering of the 

 azalea and camellia exhibited. 



Mr. Hovey said that the smaller the pot, consistently with the 

 health of the plant, the sooner the plant would bloom. To cramp 

 the roots, without stinting, brings early maturity, like the quince 

 stock, where the sap vessels are smaller than those of the pear 

 graft, causing an enlargement just above the point of union. Pre- 

 cisely the same efiect is produced by ringing, but he had noticed 

 that when a branch of the Dix pear, which is noted for its late 

 bearing, was girdled to cause it to produce fruit, it seemed to grow 

 over more rapidly than other varieties. In producing seedlings 

 he had always acted on the principle that checking the growth of 



