42 massachusetts horticultural society. 



Improvement by selection* axd Breeding. 



Although many of our annuals are extremely beautiful in their 

 wild state there have been most wonderful changes brought about 

 in some of the genera and species by cultivators and specialists. 

 Annual plants have been of much more interest to those who have 

 been interested in the improvement of cultivated plants than herba- 

 ceous plants have ever been. They have been more easily handled, 

 that is, their habits and forms have more easily responded to the 

 requirements or desires of the improver. On the other hand they 

 have had drawbacks which the improver found great difficulty 

 to overcome in many instances. To get a new habit or new form 

 of flower in annual plants was not the only difficulty the improver 

 or cultivator had to contend with. His time and skill would have 

 been wasted if varieties could not be produced true from seed. 

 Therefore, it is in getting good strains that will come every time 

 true from seed that takes time, patience, and perseverance. 



In woody or herbaceous plants this difficulty is much more 

 easily overcome when new varieties have been obtained, as they 

 can be increased in many ways other than by seed, such as by 

 cuttings, grafting, and many similar modes of propagation. Con- 

 sequently much time and trouble have to be given to keeping true 

 the fine strains of many kinds of our garden annuals. They very 

 soon degenerate and, if not carefully looked after, many of them 

 will revert to their wild state. One would be almost safe in saying 

 that if the skill and labor of our cultivators and specialists were 

 abandoned for a few years, nearly all the good varieties of garden 

 annuals would disappear and be replaced by inferior kinds more 

 like the original wild forms. 



Wonderful improvement has been brought about since the 

 garden annuals were collected in their native countries. The 

 time and labor that has been spent on some of these plants is hardly 

 credible. The history and orign of some of the varieties make 

 intensely interesting reading. Some men have spent the best 

 part of their lives improving the species and varieties of one genus. 

 Eckford and Laxton in England gave the greater part of their 

 lives to improving the sweet pea. In Germany and France much 

 time has been spent in raising and improving these plants. The 



