SPORTS OF VAKIETIES. 43 



Hovey believed that man}^ of our varieties are produced from 

 sports, but be felt very doubtful whether the views expressed in 

 the article read are correct. Mr. Hovey referred to the striped 

 varieties of pears, such as Verte longue, Beurre d'Araanlis, Louise 

 Bonne of Jersey, etc., the Achyranthes, and the variegated Azaleas, 

 as instances of sports. In regard to camellias, be said that he could 

 not fix the colors of Mrs. Anne Maria Hovey by grafting, and 

 felt quite sure that Col. Wilder's plant will sport sooner or later. 

 His own plants vary extremely — white, with one quarter red, the 

 outside pink with white centre, or outside white with pink centre. 

 Among a hundred and fifty large plants he had never failed to see 

 the white appear in the rose sooner or later. It was quite remark- 

 able that two white sports of the BouvarcUa, Vreelandi and 

 Davidsonii, should appear at the same time. The sports of 

 azaleas might or might not be permanent. Our collections would 

 be much richer, if all the old cultivators had noticed and per- 

 petuated sports. All persons, when assorting their seedlings, 

 evergreen and others, should notice variations and perpetuate such 

 as may be worthy. 



President Strong felt the same doubt as Mr. Hovey in regard to 

 the possibility of producing sports by grafting, to the extent alleged 

 in the paragraph quoted from the '• Gardeners' Chronicle," bat, 

 at the same time, believed that some effect might be produced in 

 that way. Most of our grafted roses are on the same stock, the 

 Manetti, and he thought that if a rose were grafted on a stock of 

 different color, the Baronne Prevost for instance on Caroline 

 Sansal, the color might be aff'ected. The stock certainly does in 

 some cases aff'ect the scion, Abutilon vexillarium becoming perma- 

 nently mottled when grafted on A. Thomjisoni. This may be true 

 of other plants, and the whole subject offers a fruitful field for 

 experiment. 



Mr. Tailby spoke of a graft of Abutilon Thompsoni^ on the com- 

 mon species, which he had seen at Mr. Hunnewell's, in which the 

 stock had been so much influenced by the graft, as to throw out a 

 variegated shoot below the point of junction. 



Mr. Hovey said that in one of the scientific discussions of the 

 London Horticultural Society it was remarked that no scion would 

 change the stock but the abutilon. He repeated his belief that 

 varieties could not be produced at will. All analogy is against it. 

 The Baldwin apple has been grafted millions of times, without 



