72 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Hovey said that the subject presented by Prof. Goodale re- 

 quired much thought. In his view the ideas of the gentleman who 

 had taken this strong ground in regard to the infrequency of self- 

 fertilization were beginning to loosen a little. He could not sub- 

 scribe to the doctrine of evolution, and thought that it was only hy 

 self-fertilization that nature keeps itself true. The clover of to-day 

 is the same as the clover of a thousand years ago. So also with 

 timothy grass, and many other plants : they are all unchanged. 

 With all the good that Mr. Darwin has done, his writings have been 

 to some extent sensational. It needs much time and many experi- 

 ments to establish the views presented in the lecture under discus- 

 sion. Mr. Hovey thought self-fertilization the rule and cross-fer- 

 tilization the exception. 



Mrs. J. W. Wolcott inquired whether Mr. Hovej" was certain 

 that clover had remained unchanged for a thousand yeai's, and that 

 the flowers were self-fertihzed. 



Mr. Hovey replied that if the red and white clovers had been 

 crossed this would have produced a hybrid. We know that a pis- 

 tillate strawberry is sure to be fertilized if there is a staminate with- 

 in reasonable distance, and he presumed the clover might be cross- 

 fertilized. 



Benjamin P. Ware thought the corn crop a fair illustration of the 

 point under discussion. Farmers know that a perfect ear seldom 

 grows on an isolated plant, showing that it is dependent on cross- 

 fertilization. It is fair to presume that in like manner each head of 

 clover may be fertilized from its neighbor. 



John Robinson read from a notice in the "American Cultivator," 

 of Darwin's new work, " Cross and Self-Fertilization of Plants," an 

 account of some interesting experiments with Indian corn, to test the 

 comparative vigor of cross and self-fertihzed plants. These were 

 planted in two rows, and " when fully grown the ten tallest plants 

 in each row were selected and measured to the tips of their 

 highest leaves, as well as to the summits of their male flowers. The 

 crossed averaged to the tips of their leaves 54 inches in height, and the 

 self-fertilized 44.65 inches, or as 100 to 83 ; and to the simmiits of 

 their male flowers 53.96 and 43.45 inches, or as 100 to 80." The 

 aggregate height of fifteen cross-fertilized plants raised in pots was 

 302.88 inches, and of fifteen self-fertilized plants, on opposite sides 

 of the same pots, 263.63 inches. The practical points deduced by 

 the editor of the "Cultivator" from these and other experiments by 



