1871 



THE WESTERN POMOLOGIST. 



119 



without chart or compass — and all my knowledge 

 of botany will not help me out. True, I need not 

 err as to the order, but some genera are so mixed 

 up and modified in their species and varieties as to 

 be perplexing. We must naturally conclude that 

 there are laws that govern the assiiiiilatioM of plant 

 food, so as to produce modilicd action in the cellu- 

 lar tissues of the plant or fruit, or both, aided by 

 electric, atmospheric, and other conditiou.«. Thus 

 giving to man a stimulus to be a co-worker with 

 the Author and Giver of every good gift, and by a 

 judicious use of the one talent given to the husband- 

 man, he can return ten when called to a reckoning. 

 So that Darwin's theory nor his facts chaiig one jot 

 or tittle the eternal truths, whether we understand 

 them or not. 



Early Rlcliiuoud— Wliat Is It? 



BY J. L. BUDD, SlIKLLSBintG, IOWA. 



Ed. Pomolooist : Allow mc to say a wonl aliout 

 "Qi.ercus" and his verdict in regard to naming 

 cherries. He says Downing is standard authority, 

 and Downing .says the proiier name for Early Hicli- 

 mond of the West is Kentish. Now ' ' Quercus " 

 doing duty as critic must be car<'ful. Downing docn 

 not say Western Early Richmond is the Kentish. 

 But he does say that the cherry brought to Long 

 Island by the father of Wm. R. Prince, and dissem- 

 inated at the East as the Early Richmond, is the 

 veritable and true Kentish. Upon page 470 of 

 Downing's new work, "Quercus" will lind the 

 words we here quote. "The Early May, of Illinois 

 and the West, is probably a distinct sort, aiul by 

 some considered identical with our Kentish or 

 Earlj' Richmond. We have had no opportunity of 

 comparing them." 



Now Downing wrote these words a long time 

 since. If " Quercus " should ask Chas. Downing, 

 F. R. Elliott or Barry today about the identity of 

 the Western Early May, Early Richmond, Ragan 

 Cherry, Virginia May, or whatever you please to 

 call it, with the Kentish, he would be told that the 

 two varieties were totally distinct in habit of 

 growth and of fruiting. He would also be told that 

 no one ever thought or wrote that the Flemish 

 might be identical with either the Eastern or 

 Western Early Richmond. How " Quercus " conld 

 make this blunder is more than I can comprehend. 

 The Flemish Cherry is the mo.st odd and distinct of 

 all the Morello Cherries, and a blind man could 

 hardly mistake it. 



Surely, "Quercus" must be more careful. He 

 probably had in mind the Donna Maria of Elliott. I 

 think there is not much doubt but this cherry — 

 now much lauded at the East — will prove identical 

 with our great western market sort. So far as I 

 know, this is the general opinion of those who 

 have given the matter close attention. 



Tlie £xtiu(-(lou of Species. 



By A. Vkitcu, New Haven, Cok. 



Ed. Pomoi.ooi.st : It has been lately asked "why 

 have the many extinct si)ecimens which geology 

 proves, ceased to exist V" and we believe a satisfac- 

 tory answer to that question would be interesting 

 to many who hitlierto have only been able to guess 

 at the causes which wrought such havoc amongst 

 the primitive forms of vegetation. Wc are well as- 

 sured of this having been the case, but that it took 

 place "for the want of the cultivated and wise di- 

 rected hand of man lo prolong their existence," is 

 an assumption unsupported by all tlie evidence 

 which can be gleaned from the records of the 

 past. 



Palaeontology teaches that at the close of the 

 Azoic time, or when the conditions upon which the 

 life and sustenance of plants depend came into play, 

 tribes of the lower orders such as sea weeds, club 

 mosses aiul the like took their places upon the 

 stage, and fulfilled the important mission of render- 

 ing it possible for others of higher type and organ- 

 ization to sulisist. So we find as age succeeded age, 

 great and imjiortant changes took place in the Veg- 

 etable Kingdom by the iutroducticm of new species 

 and geueras, and the extinction of many that were 

 old. But not until late in the Tertiary were all of 

 those productions ushered into being, upon which 

 man in common with herbiverous animals subsist. 

 This fact, taken in connection with the other writ- 

 ten in indellible characters upon tlic rocks, and fine- 

 ly illustrated by every hill and hollow which diver- 

 sify the surliice of the globe ; that from the be- 

 ginning of the ages down to the time immediately 

 preceding man's appearance, revolution and change 

 prevailed to so great an extent as to render the 

 earth a most unfit residence for him. The time for the 

 fellow worker was not yet come, and therefore his 

 services were neither recjuired nor could they have 

 been of any avail. Moreover, it is hard to believe 

 that it was in conseciuencc of his absence from the 

 scene that the Sigellarca and Calamites, the Lepe- 

 dadendra and Conefers of the Coal period became 

 exciting; and as the conditions of their existence in 

 no way depended upon him, much less with all his 

 boasted skill and resources could he have stayed for 

 a day the march of events which bore them down 

 to death. This seems to have been brought about 

 not so much by the running down of vital force, or 

 the strong crowding out the weak, as by such 

 agents as shake the earth from center to circumfer- 

 ence ; which displayed their power by .shifting and 

 rc-shifting the beds of seas ; and which surely, were 

 more than sufficient to bring to a pause, more or 

 le.ss sudden, the luxuriant vegetation of the coal pe- 

 riod. And besides, there is geologic evidence to 

 show that it was through violence and convulsion 



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