LECTURE BY HON. MARSHALL P. WILDER. 183 



wood and fruit. Similar illustrations are seen in the floral king- 

 dom, such as the Abbie Tr3'phosa, and Grace Sherwin Wilder 

 camellias, the former, a clear rose, the latter, a deep flesh color, 

 both of which were sporting branches from the Mrs. Abby Wilder, 

 a white camellia. 



Another instance may be cited in the double scarlet geranium, 

 Gloire de Nancy, propagated from a sport of a single flowering 

 variety. In all these cases, both of fruits and flowers, and I might 

 mention many more, these varieties have been made permanent by 

 the grafting of the sporting branch, or what gardeners call "fixing 

 the graft," and thus making a distinct and permanent A^ariety. 



We have learned some of the laws which control the processes 

 of hybridization, but others yet remain to be discovered, and 

 this partial ignorance, bringing to the pursuit an element of 

 uncertainty, gives to it also a zest and fascination which are sel- 

 dom found in any other pursuit of science. It may be that nature 

 has set limits to our achievement, but we cannot doubt the ability 

 to produce by these means such novel and desirable combinations 

 in securing new and valuable varieties as ages might not give us 

 by accidental fertilization or sowing seeds at random. In emplo}'- 

 ing this agency we only imitate nature, for, though the artificial 

 process is but of recent origin, natural hybridization must have 

 existed from the creation, and undoubtedl}'^ gave to man the first 

 hint of the power within his reach. Here the master-mould of 

 nature's heavenly hand is placed within our own, nor can we doubt 

 that the knowledge of this process was confided to man, that it 

 might be developed to its utmost extent. 



We are, as yet, unable to fix the exact limits within which hy-- 

 bridization may be efiected, but we know that they cannot be 

 determined by present botanical classification. The rhododendron 

 and azalea may easily be hybridized, but no one as yet has suc- 

 ceeded in hybridizing the apple and the pear, or the raspberry 

 and blackberrj^, which, according to botanical classification, are 

 more closely allied. The American and European grapes are 

 classed as distinct species, but in the Miller's Burgundy, with its 

 pubescent foliage and hardy nature, we have a connecting link be- 

 tween the Vitis vinifera, and V. Labrusca. The doubts which have 

 heretofore been entertained on theoretical grounds, as to the cross- 

 ing of the American and European grape, have been entirel^^ removed 

 by the experiments of Messrs. Rogers, of Salem, Underbill, of 



