DEGENERATION OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 79 



of Dr. "Walcott's seedlings, equal to Progne. The color is not 

 quite so deep but it is equal!}- beautiful. 



Beujamin G. Smith said that he had endeavored to cultivate 

 flfty or sixty chrj-santhemum plants, but had failed, and Mr. 

 Fewkes's essay had taught him one thing that he did not know the 

 importance of before — to plunge the plants after potting. 



Mr. Fewkes said that plunging saves full half the watering. 

 English growers saj' that manuring is a great cause of chrysanthe- 

 mums going blind ; he has never given a great deal of manure, 

 but alwaj's some. 



A paper by O. B. Had wen on the " Degeneration of Fruits and 

 Vegetables," was announced for the next Saturday. 



BUSINESS MEETING. 



Saturday, January 22, 1887. 



An adjourned meeting of the Societ}" was holden at 1 1 o'clock, 

 Vice-President Benjamin G. Smith in the Chair. 



The Secretaiy read a letter from the family of the late Hon. 

 Marshall P. Wilder, gratefully acknowledging the memorial of 

 their father adopted by the Society, and the expressions of esteem 

 for him and sympath}' for his children. 



Adjourned to Saturday, January 29. 



MEETING FOR DISCUSSION. 



Degeneration of Fruits and Vegetables. 



By O. B. Hadwen, Worcester. 



The term degeneration, in its larger definition, when used with 

 reference to fruits and vegetables, is generally understood to apply 

 to those kinds, which, having been cultivated for a longer or 

 shorter period of time, and having had their day and generation, 

 seem to have run out and no longer to retain their original character- 

 istics. Nature seems to have endowed every plant known in the 

 vegetable kingdom with an allotted term or definite period of 



