IX.] INCREASE OF VARIETIES. 205 



the catalogue, about 66 per cent are of American origin. 

 Several nurseries were established in the next thirty 

 years, and fresh importations of European varieties 

 were made, so that when Downing, in 1845, described 

 the one hundred and ninety apples known to be growing 

 in this country, American varieties had fallen to 52 per 

 cent. In 1872, however, when almost two thousand 

 varieties were described in Downing' s second revision, 

 the American kinds had risen to 65 or more per cent, 

 or to about the proportion which they occupied at the 

 opening of the century. At the present time the per- 

 centage of varieties of American origin is much higher, 

 and if we omit from our calculations the obsolete vari- 

 eties, we find that over 80 per cent of the apples actu- 

 ally cultivated in the older apple regions at the present 

 time are of American origin. The percentage of native 

 varieties, in other words, has risen from nothing to 80 

 per cent since the apple settlement of the country, and 

 at least once during this time the native productions 

 have recovered from an overwhelming onslaught of 

 foreigners. Except in the cold north and northwest, 

 where the apple industry is now experiencing an immi- 

 gration not unlike that which befell the older states 

 early in the century, few people would think of import- 

 ing varieties of apples with the expectation that they 

 shall prove to be a commercial success in America. 

 Other plants have shown most astounding development. 

 In 1889 thirty- nine varieties of chrysanthemums were 

 introduced in North America, in 1890 fifty -seven vari- 

 eties, and in 1891 one hundred and twenty -one varieties. 

 The chrysanthemum is now the princess of flowers, yet 

 in 1806 M'Mahon barely mentioned it, and there were 

 no named varieties. 



