76 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



tempered with self-fertilization — which is the commoner case — is 

 practically the best, on the whole, under ordinarj' circumstances — is 

 the compromise between the two risks, viz. : failure of vigorous and 

 fertile posterity on the one hand, and failure of immediate offspring 

 on the other. Get fertilized, cross-fertilized if you can, close- 

 fertilized if you must — is Nature's golden rule for flowers." Mr. 

 Hovey agreed with Prof. Gray in his later views — he thought cross- 

 fertilization desirable, but carried on at great expense. 



The Chairman said that Prof. Goodale's statement was much 

 stronger than Prof. Robinson's. He (the Chairman) had thought 

 the flowers of the Kalmia arranged for self-fertilization, but accord- 

 ing to Prof. Goodale, it was one of the instances going to prove the 

 rule of cross-fertilization. 



John B. Moore said that he had raised three hundred seedhngs 

 from the Rivers' Eliza strawberry, and had in every instance repro- 

 duced the parent, or else had got a variety not quite equal to it. 

 The case was the same with the Large Early Scarlet, though both 

 these varieties were growing with twenty others. He had found 

 that the simplest and easiest way of producing new varieties was to 

 select a pistillate kind, and plant it away from all others except that 

 with which he wished to fertilize it. In this way he was sure of 

 getting a cross. Corn is one of the easiest plants to operate on. 

 The spindles should all be cut from the variety which 3'ou wish to 

 make the mother, before they have fertilized it. 



Mr. Moore agreed with Mr. Hovey that Darwin is sometimes 

 romantic and fanciful, and mentioned as an instance the account 

 given by him, and quoted with approval by Prof. Chadbourne at a 

 late meeting of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, of an 

 apple tree at St. YaXexy, " which, from the abortion of the stamens, 

 does not produce pollen, but being annually fertilized by the girls 

 of the neighborhood with pollen of many kinds, bears fruit 'diflfering 

 from each other in size, flavor, and color, but resembling in charac- 

 ter the hermaphrodite kinds b}' which they have been fertiUzed.' " 

 Mr. Moore said that an experience of sixty years in the culture 

 of fruit forced him to differ from Prof. Chadbourne. He did not 

 believe an3'thing he saw in a book unless it appeared reasonable to 

 his own mind. 



Mr. Wethcrell also agreed with Mr. Hovey that Darwin was 

 sometimes romantic, and thought his book on " Cross and Self- 

 Fertilization," tlie most practical work he had written. This sub- 



