82 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



are better than those which cover barel}^ one, appears to have not 

 received sufficient attention. 



Hj^bridization, the impregnation of one species by the pollen 

 from another, does not lie in our present path. 



The Chairman mentioned the point that if suppression of indi- 

 viduality, was Nature's law, in his view it conflicted with the 

 doctrine of evolution. 



Marshall P. Wilder agreed with the Chairman as to the conflict 

 between these views. The subject as illustrated by Prof. Goodale, 

 was new to him, as was also the application of the term cross-fer- 

 tilization to the fertilization of a flower by another flower on the 

 same stem. Knight and Herbert, in their writings on cross-fer- 

 tilization, apply it to the fertilization of one variety by another. 

 Though Mr. Wilder had a great regard for scientists, he believed 

 that God ordained that plants should self-fertilize, each plant "yield- 

 ing seed after its kind." Corn and other plants are kept pure by 

 self-fertilization, so that we get the exact varieties. If a plant fer- 

 tilized by its own pollen or by a companion, produces a seedling 

 like itself, we have made no progress in improvement. Working- 

 horticulturists have discovered that species could be crossed, and 

 the speaker preferred careful cross-fertilization by hand, as the surest 

 method of improvement in the production of new varieties, to im- 

 pregnation by insects or the wind. We have an absolute law by 

 which we can cooperate with nature in this improvement of species, 

 both animal and vegetable. Lindley sa^-s weak parents produce 

 weak children, and their children are still weaker. 



Mr. Wilder called attention to a group of eight azaleas, three 3'ears 

 from seed, exhibited by him, in fulfilment of his promise at one of 

 these meetings, to produce seedling azaleas in flower in much less 

 time than is commonly supposed to be required. 



The Chairman said that the beauty of Prof. Goodale's position is 

 that he is seeking for facts. Our object also should be to ascertain 

 facts. 



Mr. Wilder said, in regard to the incapability of plants of fer- 

 tilizing themselves, that when the anther bursts, the pollen becomes 

 almost ethereal, filling the air like the spores of a pufl?-ball when 

 burst. The Willey strawberry is a pistillate variety, with large and 

 vigorous foliage, completely hiding the flowers, but if a pistillate 

 variety is growing near, the pollen will so pervade the air as to 

 fertilize every flower under that dense mass of foliage. Some plants 



