FERTILIZATION AND CROSS-FERTILIZATION. 79 



the neighborhood, some of which came into the house. A current 

 of ail' is not sufficient. 



Mr. Hovey said that it was well to know what we wanted to 

 arrive at, and the question was whether cross-fertihzation was 

 necessary to keep up the vigor of the race. He admitted the facts 

 stated in regard to the Draccena and the strawberry. Moisture is 

 unfavorable to the dissemination of pollen. 



Mr. Wetherell alluded to the breeding of cattle as analogous to 

 the breeding of plants,* and said that the shorthorns of the Duchess 

 family, bred in-and-in, are the most perfect animals of the cattle 

 kind that the world has ever seen. He spoke of the Duchess cow, 

 at the York Mills sale, that brought $40,600. Though cross-fertili- 

 zation may produce large and perfect plants, the question is whether 

 individuality can thus be perpetuated. He thought crossing with 

 inferior and unimproved varieties would impair the vigor of plants, 

 and that the less there was of foreign pollen the more perfect would 

 be the plants propagated from seeds. 



The Chainnan remarked that Darwin produced monstrosities by 

 breeding in-and-in, and that the question is, what we call a perfect 

 plant. 



Mr. Wetherell asked whether it was not understood by botanists, 

 that all plants in their original state are perfect, and that the gar- 

 den varieties are monstrosities. 



The Chairman repUed, that technically they were, and referred to 

 Darwin's illustration from the gooseberry. It is a fair question 

 how far, in our efforts at improvement in particular directions, we 

 interfere with the general development of the plant. 



Mr. Hovey agreed with the Chairman that all plants and trees out 

 of the common course are monstrosities. Cross-fertilization has not 

 kept up the individuality of plants, but has changed it. Eoses with 

 a tendency to double, become entirely changed in three or four re- 

 moves from the original. The wild touch-me-not is precisely the 

 same as it was fift}^ years ago, but if removed to the garden it would 

 doubtless have been changed. Mr. Hovey asked how such a pear 

 as the Duchesse d'Angouleme, which was found growing wild, was 

 produced. He thought cross-fertilization likely to lead away from 

 the original type. 



*The following note is added by Mr. Wetherell : " Sexual reproduction is so essen- 

 tially the same in plants and animals, that I think we may fairly apply conclusions 

 drawn from the one kingdom to the other." Charles Darwin, in " London Agricultural 

 Gazette," April 2, 1877, p. 324. 



