LECTURE BY HOIN". MAESHALL P. WILDER. 179 



The methods of producing new varieties in the vegetable king- 

 dom may be classed as follows : — 



1st. Natural mode, by self-impregnation, or by the influence of 

 wind and insects. 



2d. Yan Mons' system, or the amelioration of inferior or wild 

 varieties, by solving the seeds of successive generations. 



3d. Artificicd hybridization, and cross fertilization of different 

 species, and varieties, as practised by Thomas Andrew Knight, Pres- 

 ident of the London Horticultural Society, and others. 



4th. TJie establishment of a sporting branch of a tree or other 

 plant, by grafting it on to another stock, thus perpetuating its charac- 

 ter, and creating a new variety. 



THE NATURAL SYSTEM. 



The general law of nature, that like produces like, laid down in 

 Scripture at the time of Creation, for the perpetuation of species of 

 animals and plants, is in practice found to be subject to many 

 variations, thus furnishing us with the means and the agents for 

 continued improvement. By the natural system we should select 

 the most mature and perfect seeds, of the most hardy, vigorous 

 and valuable varieties, relying upon that Divine wisdom which 

 originally gave to every tree its own seed, and therefore capacity to 

 produce after its own kind. But the tendency to variation, of 

 which we have spoken, is, in a state of nature, comparatively lim- 

 ited without the process of cross fertilization ; and whatever im- 

 provement may have taken place in the varieties of our American 

 fruits, it is to be attributed chiefly to the pollen of varieties trans- 

 ported by insects, or through the atmosphere, to another and 

 different sort. 



Among the most extensive and successful experiments in the 

 raising of new fruits by sowing the seeds of the best varieties, are 

 those of our members, Mr. Francis Dana and Messi-s. Clapp. The 

 Dana's Hovey pear, now becoming quite extensively known, is a 

 fruit of the highest character, and unlike many of the new pears, 

 appears to be adapted to a wide extent of territory. The Clapp's 

 Favorite, the largest and most beautiful pear of its season, affords 

 an illustration of the law that " like produces like," and also an 

 instance of natural cross fertilization by the air or insects, having 

 sprung from the seed of the Bartlett, to which the fruit bears a 



