44 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



changing its character. So with the Bartlett pear. All our stocks 

 are not crabs. He had himself sown for stocks the seeds of im- 

 proved kinds, which would certainly run into varieties, and grafted 

 the Bartlett and other pears on them, but no variation was pro- 

 duced. He believed it to be a law of nature that variations should 

 not be caused by grafting, else our fruits would all come to we 

 know not what. 



President Strong remarked that William Gray, Jr., had on exhibi- 

 tion a plant of Polemonium coeruleum var., and inquired as to its 

 value. 



E. S. Eand, Jr., in the absence of Mr. Gray, stated that Mr. 

 Gray had found it perfectly worthless ; the sun burns it all up. 



President Strong said it was very valuable as a bedding plant 

 in England, and he hoped it might prove valuable in shady situa- 

 tions here. 



Mr. Barker said that Mr. Gray had a fine stock which was 

 nearly all eaten up by snails. 



Mr. Wilder exhibited the Bougainvillea spectabilis, which had 

 bloomed with him every year, and B. glabra, of which he had a 

 large plant which did not bloom so freely. In answer to Mr. 

 Wilder's inquiry, Mr. Rand stated that B. lateritia is a variety of 

 spectdbilis. Mr. Wilder also showed a flower of Magnolia Lenne, 

 of a dark maroon color outside, and white inside. It is a hardy 

 variety. 



Mr. Rand exhibited a flower of Tacsonia Van Volxemi, a genus 

 closely allied to Passijlora, indeed running into it, so that it is 

 difficult to assign some species with certainty to either. This 

 species is distinct and of very rapid growth, a very free bloomer, 

 producing a flower at every leaf; the flowers are bright red, with 

 very long and slender stems, and, when hanging from the rafters of 

 the greenhouse, with the sun shining through them, the effect is 

 remarkably elegant. It is not a stove plant, a temperature of 

 fifty or even forty-five degrees at night being sufficient. Mr. 

 Rand's plant was set out a year ago ; it does not flower until 

 it has attained some age ; the flower lasts three days. This plant 

 is probably grafted on the common Fassiflora. All the Tacsonias 



