XVIII.] EUROPEAN VS. AMERICAN SPECIES. 313^ 



Americau species are so much alike that most bota- 

 nists have never been satisfied that they are distinct; 

 but all berry -growers know that the European varie- 

 ties will not succeed as market berries in this coun- 

 try. This superiority of the American small fruits and 

 grapes is not due to any greater excellence in quality 

 or appearance in these fruits ; on the contrary, they 

 are commonly inferior in these points, for they have 

 not yet had a long enough history to bring them to a 

 high degree of perfection. Their success is due to 

 the perfect adaptation to their surroundings, as an 

 ability to withstand our climate or the attacks of in- 

 sects and fungi. The capability to withstand or repel 

 attacks is well shown in the grapes, which resist 

 downy mildew and phylloxera better than the European 

 varieties do, and in the American gooseberry, which 

 does not suffer seriously from the mildew. The Euro- 

 pean plums are also subject to difficulties which the 

 native species, now coming into prominent cultivation, 

 more or less avoid. What is true of a comparison of 

 the European and eastern American floras appears to 

 be true, in varying degrees, of comparisons of other 

 floras with our own, all of which shows that the horti- 

 culture of eastern and central North America must 

 constantly tend to differentiate itself from that of all 

 other countries. 



If these general conclusions are well founded, we 

 should even now be able to find some corroboration of 

 them in a study of our varieties of fruits, for the liter- 

 ature of our horticulture covers three -fourths of a cen- 

 tury, and evolution aided by cultivation is much more 

 rapid than under wholly natural conditions. Among 

 the fruits which have been brought from Europe, the 



