HISTORY OF THE APPLE. 47 



dency to make me a convert to the avowed views of that 

 great Belgian Point >logist, while, on the contrary, the 

 rumors of his opponents, that he was really attempting to 

 produce crosses from some of the best fruits, as our gar- 

 deners have most successfully done in numerous instances, 

 in the beautiful flowers and delicious vegetables of modern 

 horticulture, have always impressed me with a color of 

 probability, and if he were not actually and intentionally 

 impregnating the blos-soms with pollen of the better vari- 

 eties, natural causes, such as the moving currents of air, 

 and the ever active insects, whose special function in many 

 instances appears to be the conveyance of pollen, would 

 necessarily cause an admixture, which, in a promiscuous 

 and crowded collection, like the " school of Van Mons," 

 would at least have an equal chance of producing an im- 

 provement in some of the resulting seeds. 



The whole subject of variation in species, the existence 

 of varieties, and also of those partial sports, which may 

 perhaps be considered as still more temporary variations 

 from the originals, than those which come through the 

 seeds, is one of deep interest, well worthy of our study, 

 but concerning which we must confess ourselves as yet 

 quite ignorant, and our best botanists do not agree even 

 as to the specific distinctions that have been set up as 

 characters of some of our familiar plants, for the most 

 eminent differ with regard to the species of some of our 

 common trees and plants. 



RUNNING OUT OF VARIETIES. 



It has been a very generally received opinion among in- 

 telligent fruit-growers, that any given variety oi fruit can 



