IX.] PLANTS FOR SPECIFIC USES. 209 



variety does better than all other varieties in one lo- 

 cality alone, for one specific purpose, it is not a fail- 

 ure, and it represents progress. Every peculiar or 

 isolated region tends to develop a horticulture of its 

 own, but this is possible only with a corresponding 

 initial variation in plants. No doubt many of our 

 discarded varieties failed to find the place or condi- 

 tions in which they would have succeeded. We should 

 not look upon adverse reports upon the novelties as 

 necessarily denunciatory ; they may only indicate that 

 in some places or for some purposes the variety in 

 question is unsatisfactory. 



I must also call your attention to the fact that, 

 while the areas of cultivation have greatly widened in 

 recent years because of the evolution of adaptive varie- 

 ties, the economic uses of the plants have increased in 

 like ratio. We now have varieties of fruits which 

 are specifically adapted to the making of dried fruit, 

 to canning, to enduring long journeys, and the like ; 

 and flowers which meet specific demands in decoration 

 or other uses. The period of maturation of varieties 

 has extended greatly in both directions, so that fruits 

 and flowers are now in season much longer than for- 

 merly. The gist of the whole matter is simply this, 

 that our horticultural limits and products have greatly 

 broadened in very recent times by reason of the great 

 increase in number and diversity of varieties ; and 

 this leads us to expect that still other wants will be 

 met in like manner, and that the uttermost habitable 

 parts of the country will develop a special horticulture. 



2. There is a constant augmentation in new specific 

 types of plants, hoth from our native flora and by impor- 

 tation from without. I suppose that there is no parallel 



14 SUR. 



