EOTAL HORTICTJLTUEAL SOCIETY. 
Quince (weak stocks). 
Grown 
Failed. 
„ Anielancliier, sp. (1 broken b}^ wind) 
4 strong 
6 weak 
7 weak 
6 strong 
3 weak 
1 
1 
none 
I 
Note. — The failure of the experiments in some instances may 
be due to several other causes besides that of incompatibility of 
stock and scions, such as imperfect operations or the too greatly 
advanced state of the stocks themselves before cutting down, as 
in the case of the Quince, or, as in the case of the Cherries, the 
greatly advanced state of the buds on the grafts used. Laurels, 
again, would, without doubt, succeed better grafted in a frame or 
some other place with a more confined and regularly humid atmo- 
sphere, while many would perhaps succeed best by budding in the 
summer season. 
A. F. Baeeon. 
II. On the Fecundation of Grasses. By Dr. Speuce. 
I HAYE waited in the expectation that some of our active scien- 
tific observers would take up the extraordinary statement of an 
eminent Trench botanist that " grasses are necessarily self- 
fertilized," and either corroborate or contradict it; for, as the 
subject is equally important to the botanist, the horticulturist, 
and the agriculturist, plenty of evidence must surely be forth- 
coming. In off*ering some observations of my own, tending 
certainly to the contrary conclusion, I must premise that they 
were made many years ago, chiefly in the forests and mountains 
of Equatorial America, without any reference to this question, 
and are wanting in that fullness and minuteness which I should 
consider necessary for deciding it ; moreover, a Darwin had not 
then arisen to show that cross-fertilization is the rule, not the 
exception, in plants, with its inevitable result of unceasing evo- 
lution of new forms, out of which Nature is constantly selecting 
those best fitted to survive, and enduing them with temporary 
stability. However, a plain account of what I have myself seen 
may be of interest, and induce some one to renew M. Bidard's 
experiments, not in closed rooms, but in the fields and by the 
river-sides, under the full influence of wind and rain, as well as 
of light and heat. 
