22 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



in selecting varieties to plant side by side to hybridize, you would 

 choose such as possess the qualities which you desire to combine 

 in j^our seedlings. Mr, Moore thouglit it best to wash out the 

 seed as soon as the fruit is ripe, and sow immediately in a cold 

 frame. The plants begin to come up in a very short time, and he 

 covers the glass with boards to protect them duriug the winter, and 

 plants out in the spring about two feet and a half apart. 



Marshall P. Wilder said that it does not make any difference as 

 regards fructification, whether fertilization is performed naturally 

 or by the hand of man. The chances of producing a valuable new 

 variety are far greater under the hands of a scieiitific practitioner 

 than by the accidental crossing by the wind or insects. Mr. 

 Moore's method of keeping his seedlings over winter is a very 

 good one when they are raised on a large scale. When you wish 

 to raise only a few hundred plants the seed ma}'^ be sown in pans 

 and afterwards pricked out in pots, and kept in a cool part of the 

 greenhouse till spring. The main point is to be sure and select, as 

 parents, hardy and prolific varieties, with fruit of good size, form, 

 color, and quality, and by doing this we can attain all we desire. 

 Seedlings do not show their characteristics sometimes for several 

 years. They do not become settled. Van Mons mentions this 

 several times. Some which are thought well of depreciate, and 

 others improve. We are told that there is no variety so success- 

 ful as the Wilson, but we shall have those which add superior 

 quality to the other good points of that variety — perhaps we have 

 them already. In breeding stock for improvement we select the 

 best parents ; from the best male and female we are to expect a 

 good result. 



President Parkman said that it had been noticed in hybridizing 

 lilies, where there was a moral certainty that there could be no 

 self-fertilization, that a flower was produced precisely like the fe- 

 male parent. Botanists have concluded, from this fact, that the 

 effect of fecundation may continue through two generations, 



Mr. Wilder said that he had crossed pistillate strawberries with 

 varieties of the Ilautbois, and, though it was impossible that they 

 could have been self-fertilized, the seedlings produced fruit pre- 

 cisely like that of the mother plant. The results of these crosses 

 were not worth perpetuating — they fruited poorly. 



Edward S. Rand, Jr., remarked that some of the Hautbois 

 strawberries were valuable as flowering plants. 



