IX.] INCREASE OF VARIETIES. 207 



actual multiplication of varieties. That is, there are 

 more varieties of nearly all plants in cultivation now 

 than at any previous time. M'Mahon mentions six 

 beets as grown at his time ; in 1889 there were forty - 

 two kinds. Then there were fourteen cabbages, now 

 there are over one hundred. Then there were sixteen 

 lettuces, against about one hundred and twenty now. 

 He mentions fifty -nine apples; now there are about 

 two thousand five hundred described in our books. He 

 mentions forty pears, against one thousand now. There 

 were something over four hundred and fifty species of 

 garden plants native to the United States mentioned 

 by M'Mahon ; now there are over two thousand in 

 cultivation. These figures are average examples of the 

 marvelous increase in varieties during the century. 

 I may be met here with the technical objection that 

 M'Mahon did not make a complete catalogue of the 

 plants of his time. This may be true, but it was 

 meant to be practically complete, and it is much the 

 fullest of any early list. Gardening occupied such a 

 limited area a century ago that it could not have been 

 a burdensome task to collect very nearly all the varie- 

 ties in existence ; and any omissions are undoubtedly 

 much overbalanced by the shortcomings of the con- 

 temporaneous figures which I have given you. It is 

 certainly true that during the nineteenth century, va- 

 rieties of all the leading species of cultivated plants 

 have multiplied in this country from 100 per cent to 

 1,000 per cent. This variation still continues, and 

 the sum of novelties of any year probably exceeds 

 that of the preceding year. Every generation sees, 

 for the most part, a new type of plants. 



But I suppose that these statements as to the in- 



