MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. - 
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probably in cultivation before I lie final western movement: of Hie Aryan 
race and in the time of Pliny several varieties were recognized in 
Italy alone. Today from sncli beginnings, we have among olliers the 
cabbage with its terminal bnd enormously enlarged. Ihe kale with small 
bud but large curled succulent leaves, the brussels-sprout with small 
lateral buds crowded on the stem, the kohl-rabi with the stem itself round 
and edible, the cauliflower, perhaps the most extraordinary of vegetables, 
with the small thin flowers of its wild ancestor developed into a great 
solid white edible mass of stems and buds. 
Even in modern times horticultural forms have originated and be- 
come wideiy spread whose story is already lost. The cacti are an 
American group of plants now common throughout the dry regions 
of the world, especially those with edible fruit known as prickly pears. 
The settlement of our southwest has brought these plants into recent 
prominence and the Department of Agriculture set itself to find a 
spineless cactus suitable to our conditions. There are now growing in 
its experimental gardens a score of spineless cacti gathered from every 
continent, the Mediterranean region furnishing the greater number and 
the Island of Malta a particularly fine variety without spines on its 
stems or seeds in its fruit. It is believed about ten of these forms will 
be of permanent value in this country. But how did these arise? 
In no case can the growers throw any light on their history. They have 
not been produced bv any horticulturist nor even by peoples acquainted 
with scientific plant breeding. The Mexicans took pride in their spine- 
less cacti before the time of Columbus and it is probable that most of 
the forms came from there, but it is possible that some are endemic. 
There are few plants that furnish a greater variety of products to 
a primitive people than the cocoanut palm. The meat, shell and husk 
of the nut, the bud, leaves, flower-bud, wood, roots all have uses. Prob- 
ably of American origin it is now cultivated throughout the tropics 
often by barbarous peoples with crude ideas of agriculture. Vet this 
one species has been broken into many forms, and about fifty of these 
varieties are recognized in the Malayan region alone. 
While domestication in itself has led to the amelioration of plants 
it is not to be supposed that in ancient times the propagation of selected 
varieties was ignored. Selection among animals for breeding purposes 
is mentioned by Homer and in the book of Genesis, but I do not know 
of the specific notice of plant breeding at any such early date. Vergil 
tells of the continuous selection of the best wheat for seed, but too 
often in history has the husbandman's work been despised and his 
doing unrecorded. But with the revival of learning the interest in this 
art also was awakened. To illustrate let us review the history of our 
carnation. It is mentioned by Thephrastus along with the iris, rose, 
violet and narcissus as cultivated by the Greeks who gave it the scien- 
tific name it still bears — Dianthus. When its original lilac color was 
changed to pink and then broken into red and white, we do not know 
but it was previous to the sixteenth century of our era, at which time 
its cultivation greatly increased. The gardeners of Italy, France, Hol- 
land and England contributed so many varieties that Gerard writing 
in 1507 says, “A great and large volume would not suffice to write 
of every one at large and in particular.” In 1613 Besler figured car- 
nations grown in Switzerland three and one-half inches across. In 
