Evolution in the Orchards. 25 
that tree and graft it everywhere. On the other hand, the wild 
apple does nothing of this sort. It does not know man nor con- 
sider him ; it is a wild, untamed nature, and still thinks only of the 
birds. So for every blossom it produces a fruit, but every fruit is 
a little hard, bitter affair that no man can eat. Here you see 
nature is making in the Spy the high-bred, costly individual, and 
this is what has lately been going on in our orchards; just as in 
modern society the aim is to bring out superb men, instead of 
masses of human beings. But what of the wild haw or thorn 
apple? It has fallen under culture in another direction. Man 
does not care to educate its fruits, but he has found that he can 
educate its blossoms. Some haws and other thorns were found 
to vary slightly in colour and size of flowers, and as man lives not 
only to eat but to see fine things, he has selected these to be pre- 
served, and so we have now scarlet-flowering and double-flowering 
_ crabs and haws. 
But all this while man himself has been a creature of evolution 
quite as much as the things he cultivates. His senses, and espe- 
cially his taste, has grown to be a very different affair from what it 
used to be. He will not eat now what a few generations ago was 
eaten with satisfaction. It would be hard to bribe a party of 
horticulturists to eat a Bon Critica pear, that fifty years ago was 
readily eaten by their fathers ; or a belle pear, whose name indi- 
cates the opinion held about it. It is not unlikely that fifty years 
from now, that prince of good pears, the Sheldon, will be quite 
behind the cultured palates of our children. ‘There are doubt- 
less bad flavours in the Seckel and Anjou that you and I cannot 
discover, but which will some day be fully apparent to daintier 
tastes. Evolution is a purpose in nature that aims at better things 
all the time, and so it makes men as well as men’s foods to 
improve. 
Daintier birds as well as daintier men are the result, and always 
_ will be the result. And then daintier fruits will be needed, and 
whatever is needed will be sure to be supplied. And so it will go 
on, better men demanding better foods ; better fruits demanding 
better men. ‘The possibilities hidden in this grand rose family are 
almost as great as those hidden in man himself. The quince, 
_which is also one of the same family, has a hint of some wonder- 
ful things that may not be brought out in long ages. The berries 
_ are marching on very rapidly. We shall have strawberries, in time, 
_as large as eggs, and richer in flavour than we could now appreciate 
if we had them. With daintier men come daintier birds. Robins 
| are one of the more fastidious sorts that have grown up as a result 
of man’s culture. He will, on a pinch, eata great many poor fruits, 
_ but he knows a good one when he can get it. He lives with us, 
not because he admires us, and our cats, and wicked boys, and 
