190 THE FLOMST AND 



since it has been shown there is no certainty that the plants employed in 

 those experiments were genuine Hovey's Seedling. We regret that our re- 

 gard for Mr. Meelian prevented us from examining the three plants when 

 they were exhibited by him at the March meeting of the Society. Had that 

 been done, the prfitless discussion that has subsequently arisen, and which 

 has resulted in no little unkind feeling, might perhaps have been obviated. 

 But as we have now engaged in the investigation, we have subjected the 

 plant sent to us by Mr. Meehan, to a careful and rigid examination to ascer- 

 tain its genuineness. And, after having made this examination, we are pre* 

 pared to say most emphatically, unreservedly, and unequivocally, it is not a 

 Hovey's Seedling. Should Mr. Meehan still be unconvinced that his exper- 

 iments were based on uncertain data, and consequently that any conclusions 

 from them, however legitmately drawn, are illogical and unreliable, we trust 

 he will repeat them in such a way as to avoid the sources of error to which 

 his former ones are amenable. Let the plants, with which he may experi- 

 ment, by all means, be runners taken from one and the same plant ; we shall 

 then have conclusive evidence that they are, at least all of one kind. And 

 should he determine to continue his experiments in this direction, we would 

 also advise him to obtain, if possible, runners from each of the three plants 

 exhibited by him in March last, and subject some of the runners of each to 

 his several modes of cultivation. The result will either substantiate his doc- 

 trine, or satisfactorily prove that these three plants were three separate and 

 distinct varieties, possessing invariable, unchangeable and immutable sexual 

 characteristics, unalterable by cultivation, however diversified by human 

 sagacity. After the above was written, one of the Committee received a 

 communication from Mr. Meehan, in which he informs us that the three plants 

 exhibited by him at the Meeting of the Society in March, 1853, * were 

 thrown away soon after the exhibition 1 having no idea that there wovld 

 ever be occasion to refer to them again." This loss we regret. We, learn> 

 however, from Mr. Cope, that he has three or four hundred pots of plants? 

 (taken it is to be hoped from the same " new bed of Hovey's Seedling ") in 

 his forcing house at this time, "and" he remarks, in a letter to a member 

 of the Committee, " however little dependence the Committee may feel dis- 

 posed to place in the statements concrning the experiments in progress, yet 

 the result to ill nevertheless be placed before them for their judgment." Should 

 Mr. Meehan, in this large collection, be so fortunate as to find, (and if his 

 theory be true he undoubtedly will,) three plants possessing the several dis- 

 tinctive sexual characteristics of the three he exhibited on the former occasion, 

 we trust they will not be " thrown away" but experimented with, by him, 



