SPORTS, AND STOCKS AND GRAFTS. 87 



fruit, like the Louise Bonue de Jersey Panachee, and others, are 

 undoubtedly sports, as they differ only in the color of the skin. Our 

 definition of sports, however, applies only to bud variations. Mr. 

 Hovey concluded with the remark that if what he had said induced 

 cultivators to perpetuate such sports as were valuable for their 

 beauty, he should feel repaid for writing his essay. 



E. S. Eand, Jr., alluded to Mr. Hovey's mention of Ahutilon 

 Thompsoni, and inquired whether A. vexillarium had ever varied. 



Mr. Hovey replied that variegations of A. megax>otamicum^ veno- 

 sum, and vexillarium had been produced by grafting on A. Thompsoni. 

 He did not know of any variegation of A. insigne, but would try 

 it. He did not full}' believe in Moretti's doctrine that these varie- 

 gations are the result of disease. All our fruits have been grafted 

 over and over again, but do not vary at all except in strength. A 

 very strong stock will often destroy a graft of a weak kind inserted 

 in it. This effect appears to be owing to diff"erence in the charac- 

 ter of the sap vessels, — the smaller vessels of the graft are unable 

 to take all the sap brought to them by the larger vessels of the 

 stock. It has been said that grapes which are liable to crack, like 

 Josling's St. Albans, may be prevented by grafting on certain 

 stocks, but the experiments which have been relied on to prove 

 this are untrustworthy, on account of the dissimilar conditions 

 under which they have been tried. 



In answer to an inquiry by the President concerning the camellia 

 Mrs. Anne Marie Hovey, well known as producing flowers of 

 many different shades, Mr. Hovey said it is now twenty years 

 since this variety was raised. He has now at least seventy-five 

 large plants, not one of which has been propagated with reference 

 to the place whence the scion was cut, and not one of them, to his 

 recollection, unless it may be very small ones, only two or three 

 years old, has failed to show the variation of the parent, sooner or 

 later. The camellia is generally propagated by grafting, except a 

 few strong-growing kinds, the stocks being raised from seed or 

 cuttings. 



Mr. Hovey alluded also to the Eliza Tailby rose, a sport of the 

 Isabella Sprunt, which was itself a sport from the Safrano, as 

 described in the Transactions of the Society for 1874, Part I, 

 pp. 40—42. 



President Parkman spoke of the Moss Rose as one of the most 

 remarkable of all sports. It is well known to be a variation of 



