452 An Mdress delivered before the Mass. Hort. Soc. 



valuable points on which the success of Dr. Van Mons is found- 

 ed. In the prefatory remarks on the " services and theory" of 

 Dr. Van Mons, Mr. Weston informs us that " the celebrated 

 Mr. Knight, of very extensive experience in the propagation of 

 fruit trees, attempted, though, as we may believe, on a very limit- 

 ed scale, to produce new varieties of the pear, by introducing the 

 pollen of one variety into the prepared blossom of another, and 

 raising trees from the seeds of the fruit thus obtained. But the 

 method is comphcated, and he never appears to have carried the 

 experiment to much length — and it is also a method somewhat 

 uncertain." We merely notice this paragraph to correct the 

 statement in the latter part of it, which, if generally believed, we 

 fear would tend to do away with what we consider, and have 

 proved to be, an important process in the amelioration of fruits, 

 viz., the cross fertilization of varieties. Mr. Weston remarks 

 that this system is " complicated:" on the contrary, it is a most 

 simple mode. Indeed so common has it become, that new va- 

 rieties of flowers are produced by the veriest novice in floricul- 

 ture. He also remarks that Mr. Knight did not carry the ex- 

 periment to much length — and that "it Is also a method some- 

 what uncertain." We are convinced, that if Mr. Weston had 

 been somewhat more acquainted with the subject, he would not 

 have given utterance to such an opinion: and for this reason we 

 have no fault to find with him. Mr. Knight did, however, pur- 

 sue the experiment to a considerable length, and produced many 

 superior sorts of new pears, apples, cherries, peaches, plums, 

 grapes, strawberries, &c.; witness the Downton, Lowell, and 

 other pears, the Downton pippin, the Elton, Black Eagle, and 

 other cherr-ies, the Acton Scott, and Spring Grove peaches, 

 the Downton Imperatrice and other plums, the variegated Chas- 

 selas grape, the Downton, and Elton strawberries, &c. Without 

 detracting in the least from the success of Dr. Van Mons, Mr. 

 Knight has not been less so. We hope when we shall have 

 become better acquainted with the theory of Dr. Van Mons, 

 which is fully detailed in his Pomonomie Beige, two volumes of 

 which are already published, to give our readers more informa- 

 tion relative to his new mode. Till then we prefer to say but 

 little in regard to it. We know he has raised an immense num- 

 ber of new kinds: but we are not prepared to say, that he would 

 not have been equally, if not more, successful, in his experiments, 

 by calling in the aid of cross fertilization, than he has been in not 

 doing so. 



