TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION K. 793 
botanical side, but this has been performed rather by farmers, seedsmen, or 
amateurs, than by trained botanists. But fortunately the botanist is now getting 
his opportunity, and the possibilities before him are sufficiently attractive. 
Judging by the results that have been obtained, it would appear that wide 
divergencies as regards yield, nutritive qualities, resistance to disease, and other 
important properties exist between varieties of the same plant-species ; so much so, 
in fact, is this the case, that attention to the relationship between variety and 
locality would appear to be one of the most important matters to which a farmer 
can give consideration. But it has been found that new varieties are frequently 
unstable, reverting rather rapidly to an unsatisfactory form, or displaying a lack 
of power of resistance to disease. It therefore becomes necessary constantly to be 
producing new varieties to take the place of those that are worn out, and it seems 
reasonable to anticipate that the professional botanist will take a much larger 
part in this work than has been the case in the past. 
Not only is the yield of a crop greatly influenced as regards quantity and 
quality by the variety of seed employed, but, as is well known to practical farmers, 
the local origin of the same variety of seed has a marked influence on many pro- 
perties of plants (vigour, resistance to disease, and resistance to frost, and to 
weather generally), and these properties quickly react on the yield. In this 
country we have a prejudice in favour of the seed of English-grown red clover, 
Provence Lucerne, Scotch potatoes, Belgian flax, Ayrshire ryegrass, pine and 
larch from Scotland, Norfolk and Cambridge barley, Warp-land wheat, &c., and 
there seems no reason to doubt that such preferences are based upon sound 
experience. ‘This subject would appear to be one that is still full of interesting: 
and important possibilities, and last year I had the opportunity of seeing some 
striking results in a new and unexpected direction. During the past few years 
the Austrian Experimental Forestry Station of Mariabrunn has given much 
attention to the influence of the local origin of the seed on the resulting trees, 
especially the common spruce, and, although it is still too early to pronounce a final 
judgment on the results, these are already so conspicuous as to warrant my placing 
some figures before you.! 
In the autumn of 1896 a supply of seed was obtained from certain definite 
localities, the trees that yielded it being of varying dimensions and situated at 
various altitudes. The seed was sown in the spring of 1897 in the nursery 
attached to the station, and, having been transplanted into lines, a portion of the 
young trees are growing there now. Others were, in 1899, planted out in a wood 
(Loimannshagen) in the neighbourhood. In the autumn of 1902 the young trees 
were carefully measured, with the following results :— 
Height | Average An- | (isos) oF Bie rane Average 
Locality of Origin above Sea- | nual Height- These Growth in | 
of the Seed level ofthe} growthof | = ——sSsss Height of the 
Mother- | the Mother- | I Nursery Trees, 
tree tree | Inthe | In the in 1902 
Wood Nursery | 
‘ metres cm. cm, | cm, cm. 
Piesendorf, Salzburg . 1400 | 24 62 852 34:7 
5 3 é 1750 14 47 61°6 23°3 | 
St. André in Karnten. 1420 25 57 711 27:1 
. : 1625 18 41 51-2 18-4 
= ; 1650 15 35 391 | 142 
Treibach, Kirnten 900 28 56 81-6 307 
; : 900 29 53 80°9 29°7 
Achenthal in N. Tyrol 900 31 64 87-9 | © 29-0 
Hp 5 1300 28 67 80°5 27-9 
7 A 1600 26 BOP. | "ae 21°8 
' Programm der vierten Versammlung des Internat. Verlandes Forstlicher Versuchs- 
anstalten zu Mariabrunn, 1903, p. 47. 
