ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AND FARMING. 247 



when carried only to the fifth generation, required from 

 thirty to thirty-six years. 



HYBRIDIZATION, OR KNIGHT'S METHOD. Andrew Knight, 

 one of the most original and philosophic horticulturists that 

 ever lived, pursued an entirely different method that of 

 cross-fertilization. He carefully removed the anthers from 

 the blossoms upon which he wished to operate, so that the 

 stigma should not receive a particle of the pollen belonging 

 to its own flower. He then procured from the variety 

 which he wished to cross, a portion of the pollen, and arti- 

 ficially impregnated the prepared blossom with it. When 

 the fruit thus produced had ripened its seeds, they were 

 sown, and by regular process brought into bearing. The 

 progeny were found to combine, hi various degrees of 

 excellence, the qualities of both parents. 



REMARKS ON THE TWO METHODS. 



1. Both Van Mons and Knight believed in a degeneracy 

 of plants ; but the degeneracy of the one system is not to 

 be confounded with that of the other. 



Knight believed that varieties had a regular period of 

 existence ; although, as in animal life, care and skill might 

 make essential difference in the longevity, yet they could in 

 nowise avert the final catastrophe; a time would come, 

 sooner or later, at which the vegetable vitality would be 

 expended, and the variety must perish by exhaustion by 

 running out. 



Van Mons believed that an improved variety tended to 

 return to its normal state to its wild type ; and although 

 he did not believe that it could ever be entirely restored tc 

 its wild state, it might go so far as to make it worthless for 

 useful purposes. 



Knight believed in absolute decay ; Van Mons, in retro- 

 cession. According to Knight's theory, varieties of fi-iil 



