NOTE and COMMENT 



P^AMiLiAR Shrubs from the Wild. — Every garden 

 plant that differs from wild plants of the same kind has 



improved by selection, it may have been crossed with other 

 forms, or it originated in the wild as a "sport." The sports 

 have a peculiar interest for us from the fact that they represent 

 Nature's attempts at improving things. For ages she has been 

 encouraging plants to throw off these variations from the nor- 

 mal. If by chance they are able to survive we have a new 

 variety or species, but usually such variations are swamped 

 by the multitudes of the common form. When man cares to 

 protect these unusual plants they are often found to be quite 

 superior tO' the type. The double-flowered crab, often called 

 Bechtel's crab, is an instance of this kind. It is a sport from 

 Pyrns locnsis which was taken from the wild by Thomas 

 Bechtel near Staunton, 111., about 1888. The shrubs from 

 which the specimens came had been known for nearly fifty 

 years before anybody had thought it worth wdiile to secure 

 and propagate so desirable a form. The weeping mulberry 

 was found in 1893 by J. C. Teas among a lot of seedlings in 

 his nursery at Carthage, Mo. The cultivated form of the 

 common hydraligea. Hydrangea arhorcsccns stcrilis, was found 

 about 1892 by J. A. Shafer near Pittsburg, Pa. In this form 

 the flowers are all enlarged and sterile. Several other hydran- 

 geas with this peculiarity are known. The cut-leaved form of 



readied its perfection in one of three ways : it may have been 



