Masterpieces of Science 



enough to tell him how the crossing of two dif- 

 ferent stocks will issue. A rose which season 

 after season opposes only indifference to all his 

 pains may be secretly gathering strength for a 

 bound beyond its ancestral paths which will 

 carry it much farther than his hopes, or, perhaps, 

 his wishes. 



Most flowers are admired for their own sweet 

 sake, but who thinks less of an apple or cherry 

 blossom because it bears in its beauty the promise 

 of delicious fruit ? Put a red Astrachan beside 

 a sorry crab, a Bartlett pear next a tough, dimin- 

 utive wild pear such as it is descended from, an 

 ear of milky corn in contrast with an ear one- 

 fourth its size, each grain of which, small and 

 dry, is wrapped in a sheath by itself; and rejoice 

 that fruits and grains as well as flowers can learn 

 new lessons and remember them. At Concord, 

 Massachusetts, in an honoured old age, dwells Mr. 

 Ephraim W.Bull. In his garden he delights to 

 show the mother vine of the Concord grape which 

 he developed from a native wild grape planted as 

 long ago as 1843. Another "sport" of great 

 value was the nectarine, which was seized upon 

 as it made its appearance on a peach bough. 

 Throughout America are scattered experiment 

 stations, part of whose business it is to provoke 

 fresh varieties of wheat, or corn, or other useful 

 plant, and make permanent such of them as 

 show special richness of yield ; earliness in ripen- 

 ing; stoutness of resistance to Jack Frost, or 

 blight, or insect pests. Suppose that dire disaster 

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