MARSHALL P. WILDER. 531 



to be not only a science of considerable breadth, but an art involving in its mate- 

 rials ten thousand details. In all parts of Europe and America, new fruits, plants, 

 and trees, are continually brought into existence by the creative hand of the skill- 

 ful gardener. Especially at one period, about fifteen years ago, did the Flemish 

 cultivators astonish the world of fruit-growers with their catalogues of superlative 

 new fruits. Now the natural vanity of some, and the natural ignorance of other 

 cultivators, lead them to overrate the merits of many new varieties. Difference 

 of soil and climate also renders a fruit of the highest value in one country of 

 lesser or greater value in another. Behold, then, how important that some steps 

 should be taken by which all this vast mass of accumulated material should be 

 put into the crucible of knowledge from time to time, so that the pure gold should 

 be separated from the dross, for the benefit of a whole community of men who 

 have good orchards and gardens ! 



In other countries, Societies or Governments, with abundant means at their 

 command, have undertaken this Herculean task of collecting and proving new 

 fruits and plants. But, in this country, no Society has as yet been able, no one of 

 the States willing, to prosecute this interesting and necessary series of experi- 

 ments. But what the Horticultural Society of London has done for England in 

 the way of fruits, or the Jardin des Plantes for France, in trees and plants, Col. 

 Wilder has to a very considerable extent done for New-England (and we may 

 indeed say for the Union) in his own private grounds at Hawthorn Grove. 

 To accomplish this object he has long pursued the following plan : 

 1st. Entering into active correspondence and maintaining standing orders 

 with all the most eminent horticultural amateurs and nurserymen of foreign 

 countries, and procuring at the earliest moment every new production worthy of 

 note, abroad as well as at home. This has necessarily given his grounds, at all 

 times, the aspect of a crowded museum of gardening novelties from all parts of 

 the world, more attractive to the understanding of the connaisseur than to the 

 eye of the tyro. 



2d. Continually testing these new fruits and plants by putting them in pro- 

 per sites and soils, keeping an accurate record of all results, exhibiting all his 

 specimens before the public at the exhibition of the Horticultural Society, and 

 freely distributing scions, plants or seeds, to other persons. 



3d. Producing new varieties by the scientific process of hybridizing* — several 

 of which have been great acquisitions to the country. 



As an experimental pomologist, we are inclined to give the subject of this notice 

 higher praise than in any other department. He has that faculty oi just discrini' 

 ination so rare among enthusiastic collectors, which enables him to reject and pub- 

 licly excommunicate a really inferior variety after thoroughly testing it ; even if it 

 should come to him with the highest reputation from abroad. " Take nothing 

 on trust — prove for yourself, and hold fast to that which is good," such are the 

 maxims which govern his experimental practice in his favorite art. We have 

 indeed heard him remark to a friend, who expressed his surprise at his patience 

 in collecting so many varieties of fruits, to find only so small a number really 

 worthy of general cultivation, that such was his desire to get at the truth that 

 " his satisfaction in ascertaining that a variety was poor (thus preventing its ex- 

 tensive dissemination) was nearly as great as in finding it worthy of general cul- 

 tivation." 



The Pear has perhaps been Col. Wilder's favorite fruit, and he has been re- 



* A very able article on the curious and interestins subject of Hybridization, from the pen of Col. Wilder, 

 will be found in the lid Pan of the " Transactions of the JVtassachusetts Horticultural Society.'' 

 (lOll; 



