58 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 154. 



and when trained as it should be, it is really beautiful with its 

 festoons of flowers. In the tropical plant house was a plant of 

 the exceedingly bright and showy Ipomaea Horsfallice, evi- 

 dently grafted on the tubers of some other species, probably 

 the Sweet Potato, /. Batatas. I. Jalapa was a species of 

 great interest to the late Dr. Thurber, of Passaic, New Jersey, 

 chiefly, I believe, on account of associations. This is a lovely 

 plant when grown where it can mature sufficiently early in the 

 season to bloom before frost. We planted every spring and 

 stored the tubers in the fall, but it seldom bloomed until frost 

 came to blight it. Toxicophlaa spectabilis I found, and large 

 specimens well bloomed are really beautiful. The flowers 

 are borne in umbellate corymbs, clear white in color and 

 powerfully scented. Here, also, I saw some admirable Poin- 

 settias. They were very vigorous, some having made growths 

 of between five and six feet during the last season, with a 

 spread of bracts measuring twelve to nineteen inches in di- 

 ameter. The secret of taking vigorous shoots in July and 

 August and rooting them without losing any foliage to speak 

 of does not seem to have been discovered here. I have seen 

 it done, however, and nothing is more striking than a group 

 of Poinsettias, the foremost plants of which are not more 

 than eighteen inches high, with leaves right down to the pots, 

 which are often not more than five inches in diameter, with 

 heads of bracts six to eight inches across. 



Among Orchids particularly noteworthy were large specimens 

 of Phajus grandifolius, always well done here. This is a 

 magnificent plant, the spikes of bloom measuring three feet 

 high, and as many as twelve to fifteen in a twelve-inch pot. 

 Of the handsome Cattleya Percivaliana these were some fine 

 varieties. The deep color of the flowers is conspicuous, and 

 especially the orange-yellow of the interior of the labellum. 

 There was also a deeply colored form of Lcelia aittumnalis, 

 with good specimens of Cypripedium insigne, Odontoglossum 

 Posit majus and many more Orchids. 



Wellesley, Mass. 



H. G. 



Meetings of Societies. 



The Western New York Horticultural Society. — I. 



THE thirty-sixth annual convention of this body, which 

 took place at Rochester last week, was one of the 

 largest and most successful ever held, notwithstanding the 

 fact that last year was one of very general failure in the 

 fruit crop. Mr. S. D. Willard, the first Vice-President of the 

 Society, in his annital address alluded to the general disas- 

 ter which befel orchards and vineyards, and yet he spoke 

 hopefully, and called attention to the fact that fruit-growers 

 were more thoroughly equipped to-day than ever to meet 

 with the trials which come from bad seasons and the attacks 

 of insects and diseases, and he predicted that the era of low 

 prices was about to give place to more prosperous times. 

 Mr. Willard spoke with feeling of the late President, Mr. 

 Patrick Barry, and noticed the death of two or three other 

 prominent members of the Society which had occurred 

 during the year. Two hundred and eighty subscriptions 

 for membership were made, and, although there were no 

 prizes offered, an admirable display of fruit, especially 

 pears, apples and grapes, was made. The officers ap- 

 pointed for the following year were : President, W. C. 

 Barry ; Vice-Presidents, S. D. Willard, W. Brown Smith, 

 J. S. Woodward and George A. Sweet ; Secretary and 

 Treasurer, John Hall. 



As usual, the addresses and discussions were practical 

 and pointed, and the reports of the various county com- 

 mittees were full of instruction. Abstracts of some of the 

 more important papers are given below : 



DO VARIETIES RUN OUT ? 



This was the subject of a paper by Professor Bailey, which 

 we reproduce entire : 



" Few questions have occasioned more discussion than this, 

 and few have been so imperfectly answered. At the present 

 time there are the most diverse opinions concerning it, but 

 with a strong trend toward the negative side ; and yet the 

 affirmative of the question admits of almost mathematical 

 demonstration. 



" If we define our propositions we shall see immediately 

 that two or three separate questions have been mixed up in 

 this discussion. By " running out " is meant the disappearance 



of the characteristics of any variety. It does not mean that the 

 line of succession, the series of generations, actually becomes 

 extinct, but that the sum of attributes by which we are able to 

 identify the group of individuals has become so modified that 

 we no longer recognize it. Running out, therefore, is not 

 necessarily deterioration, although the two are commonly 

 confounded ; it is simply change, modification. If we say 

 that the Peachblow potato, for instance, has run out, we simply 

 mean that it has disappeared. It has broken up into many 

 forms, perhaps. We cannot say that it has degenerated, for 

 degeneracy is a relative term, and a variety or an individual 

 which is inferior for one purpose may still be superior for 

 some other ; and it is probable that there are many different 

 grades or kinds of variations in the remnants of the variety, 

 some poor, some good. 



" Again, running out does not mean that the life of the variety 

 is necessarily limited in duration. As a matter of philosophy, 

 we are safe in assuming that the duration of any particular 

 form of life is prelimited, for there is evidence that species 

 have become extinct. Yet, as a matter of practice, the limits 

 of the genetic duration of species and varieties in nature con- 

 cern us little; and, at any rate, there is no reason to suppose 

 that varieties possess necessarily a different limitation from 

 species. The presumption is, however, as Dr. Gray long ago 

 pointed out,* that the older the> variety, that is, the greater the 

 number of its generations, the greater must be its chances of 

 permanence, because it has become pronounced in its charac- 

 ter and has proved its capability to persist. But I propose to 

 limit the present discussion to the mere disappearance of 

 varietal characteristics by which we lose sight of the variety, 

 rather than to extend it to the philosophical question as to 

 whether varieties, like individuals, become old and die or wear 

 out. 



" My proposition and the proof of it are simply these : Run- 

 ning out is the disappearance of varietal characteristics 

 through change ; all plants vary or change, therefore varie- 

 ties must tend to run out. While there can be no doubt of 

 this general fact or law, there are still degrees of running out, 

 because no two plants vary in the same way or at the same 

 rate — that is, as there are diverse kinds of variation so there 

 must be diverse kinds of running out. The causes of running 

 out are therefore as numerous as the causes of plant varia- 

 tion, and they include all such considerations as the influences 

 of soils, climates, methods of culture, attacks of fungi and 

 insects. It is necessary, however, to distinguish from this the 

 disappearance of varieties through mere fashion, which often 

 banishes varieties which are in every way well marked. 



" We can divide variation into two general groups, seed va- 

 riation and bud variation. Seed variation may be called a pro- 

 gressive tendency, because the new forms or variations are 

 generally different from their ancestors, and possess a greater 

 or less tendency to perpetuate themselves. The seed grower 

 is obliged to exercise constant vigilance to keep his stock 

 " true." He knows that, as a rule, stock is more likely to 

 remain true on poor soils than on very rich ones, because on 

 the latter it tends to sport or " break " more. Dwarf peas soon 

 become half dwarfs upon strong soils, and they possess a ten- 

 dency to perpetuate their characteristics. These are instances 

 in which soils cause running out. Climate exerts wonderful 

 effect upon vegetation. Transfer northwards dwarfs plants 

 and induces co-ordinate changes. Dent Corn, taken far north, 

 after a time becomes flint, as has been shown by the experi- 

 ments of Beal and others. And Beal observes! that in south- 

 ern Michigan Dent " ears grow shorter, kernels become 

 shorter and rounder at the ends." Some plants possess a 

 strong tendency toward variation which appears to be in a 

 measure independent of surroundings. The tomato is a good 

 example ; varieties do not long retain their original characters. 

 It is probably impossible to find in the market to-day the Til- 

 den tomato as it was known when the variety first appeared. 

 And the Trophy has changed considerably from its original 

 self. In short, the very fact that we can improve varieties by 

 good culture and that we are enabled to obtain new varieties 

 at all, is indubitable proof that varieties run out. Upon this 

 fact depends all possibility of advance in the origination of 

 varieties, and upon this general law, also, hangs the whole 

 framework of evolution. 



" Bud variation comprises all change which comes through 

 the agency of grafts, cuttings and tubers. By grafting or cut- 

 ting we simply multiply the original plant — we do not take 

 offspring from it — and we have every reason to expect, what 

 all observation shows, that propagation by buds should give a 



* New York Tribune, Dec. 8th, 1874. Reprinted in the American Journal of 

 Science and Arts, and Sargent's " Scientific Papers of Asa Gray." 

 t Rep. Mich. Bd. Agr., 1876, 113. 



