SPORTING OF LEAF-BUDS. 237 



with but little fruit would be likely to bring it to greater 

 perfection than when loaded with it. 



May not this deterioration of fruit, when it is produced in 

 small quantities, be in part due to the fact that when there 

 are but few blossoms on the trees, each tree receives pollen 

 from many trees through the action of the insects, while, 

 when blossoms are abundant, the bees fertilize most of the 

 flowers on a tree with pollen from other flowers on the same 

 tree ? 



Although we in general rely upon the flower-bud of our 

 fruit-trees for the product T on of new varieties, and upon the 

 leaf-bud for the sure propagation of the variety when produced, 

 yet the leaf-bud itself sometimes Sjjorts, in the language of the 

 gardeners ; that is, it gives a branch entirely different from 

 the rest of the plants, so marked, in some cases, as to consti- 

 tute a new variety. This is likely to occur in plants that are 

 highly cultivated, and have been produced as the result of 

 many variations from the original stock. Such sports I have 

 seen also among geraniums and potatoes. The farmer some- 

 time's finds potatoes in his field, such as he knew he did not 

 plant, and such as he knows cannot be seedlings. As the 

 potato-plant has produced many varieties, it naturally has a 

 tendency to sport ; and as the potato originates from an 

 underground bud, and not from a root, and is itself a stem 

 with regular buds or eyes, it is not strange that some of those 

 buds should vary, and thus new kinds of potatoes appear to 

 surprise the farmer who does not know this fact in plant- 

 life. 



Of the structure and nutrition of buds and the production 

 of adventitious buds, I have not time now to speak. The 

 subject will undoubtedly be carried on by President Clark, 

 as he intended to carry it on when the committee was first 

 named. P. A. Chadbourne. 



After some discussion, the essay was laid over. 



Mr. Mooee, from the Committee to consider and report 

 upon the time and place of holding the next public meeting, 

 submitted a report as follows : — 



The Committee appointed to fix the time and place for the 



