Extract from Florist Exchange, Sept. 20th: 
"We now understand that crossing is good for the species ; because it 
constantly re-vitahzes ofifspring with the strongest traits of the parents, 
and ever presents new combinations. But crossing alone can accomplish 
comparatively little, the chief power in the progression of plants is selec- 
tion ; the force which augments, develops and fixes types, and we must 
constantly select the best, in order to make any advancement." 
—BAILEY. 
•Jt ^ »}• <J> 
"You will expect me to speak to you to-night of that borderland of 
mystery, where man is permitted to join hands with the Great Creator 
of the Universe in guiding those forces of which he knows so little : until 
the highest flights of human fancy, picturing seeming impossibility, in 
exquisite beauty and never ending variation in form and color, sink into 
comparative insignificance, as the veil is slowly lifted before our expect- 
ant and wondering gaze." 
H. H. GROFF, before Waterloo Horticultural Society, 
and Provincial Association of Fruit Growers. 
^ *J* ^* *J* ♦J* 
"Varieties improved from man's point of view must receive kind 
treatment and richer food than wild forms of the same plant. The cul- 
tivated plant, like the domesticated animal, yields in a measure its powers 
of self-defense to adapt itself to our service. Man must in return provide 
for its safety and nourishment. In the improvement of plants the action 
of man, much like influences which act on plants in the wild state, only 
brings about slow and gradual changes, often scarcely noticeable at first. 
But "if the first efforts toward the desired end be kept on steadily, the 
changes will soon become greater and greater, and the last stages of the 
improvement will become much more rapid than the first one." 
— VILMORIN. 
4- ❖ ❖ 
"We are now standing just at the gateway of scientific horticulture — 
only have been a few steps in the measureless fields, which will stretch 
out as we advance into the golden sunshine of a more complete knowledge 
of the forces which are to unfold all the graceful forms of garden beauty 
and wealth of fruits and flowers." 
— BURBANK. 
■* ^ ♦> ❖ ❖ 
"An occasional and slight change in the conditions of life is beneficial 
to all plants and animals ; but the offspring from a cross between organ- 
isms which have been exposed to different conditions profit in an incom- 
parably higher degree than do young or old beings from a mere change 
of their conditions." 
—DARWIN. 
8 
