146 THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNLIKE. [v. 



name and disseminate such good kinds as might have 

 originated, and there were no books or periodicals, or 

 other public prints, into which accounts of them would 

 be likely to find their way. 



Van Mons set out with most commendable vigor to 

 prove his theory, and he continued the work for about 

 half a century. He conceived that the best results were 

 to be obtained by taking the first seeds from wild or spon - 

 taneous plants, for the transfer to the new conditions 

 would itself tend to awaken a variation, and the starting 

 point would be a new type or variety. From the first 

 fruits to ripen on any of the seedlings, he saved the seeds 

 and sowed again; and this practice was continued gene- 

 ration after generation with unabated zeal. His experi- 

 ments were begun in 1785. Thirty -eight years there- 

 after — in 1823 — he had eighty thousand seedling trees 

 in his "Nursery of Fidelity," at Louvain, and he had 

 then begun to distribute cions in many countries. These 

 were sent to America, also, chiefly to the elder Robert 

 Manning, of Massachusetts. These cions were sent out 

 freely under numbers, and were never sold. He gave 

 his attention almost wholly to pears. In 1823, he issued 

 his first catalogue, which contains ten hundred and fifty 

 pears, three -fourths of them bearing names. Of this 

 number. Van Mons himself appears to have originated 

 four hundred and five varieties, two hundred of which 

 were named. Amongst Van Mons' pears are the Diel, 

 Louvain, Frederic of Wurtemburg, Bosc, Colmar, Man- 

 ning's Elizabeth, and many others which are little known 

 in this country. 



The theories and work of Van Mons probably exerted 

 the widest and most profound interest and influence of 

 any horticulturist up to his time. He was introduced to 



