52 
AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
The plant is made up of a collection of individuals or buds growing upon 
themselves, and varying amongst themselves just as seedlings do, though to 
a lesser degree. The plant individual is the single bud, and an important 
problem for modern horticulturists to solve is whether the differences observed 
in trees or in parts of trees can be transmitted through the buds taken from 
these parts. 
While it is not possible to answer the problem from direct pomological 
experiments, considerable light may be thrown on the question from the 
behavior of a large number of bud variations known as sports, or of minor 
varietal variations known as strains. 
Varietal strains are the result of bud differences, and their hereditability by 
budding, or other asexual means of propagation, cannot be questioned. The 
various strains of King, Rambo, and Baldwin apples, Ivieffer and Le Conte 
pears, and other fruits are positive evidence of the fact. 
Bud sports differ from the smaller variations within the variety only in 
degree; their divergence from the type is more marked. They are frequently 
propagated by budding, and when meritorious like the Banks apple of Can- 
ada, the Pierce grape of California, and the Cannon peach of Delaware, are 
introduced as new varieties. 
The florist, however, can throw more light upon the subject. Galloway and 
Dorsett, of the Division of Vegetable Pathology, of the Department of Agri- 
culture, have increased the number of flowers per plant in a house of 90,000 
violets from fifty to eighty-six by the careful selection of plants from those 
producing an unusually large number of flowers. They have built up strains 
of plants that were less susceptible to the violet disease; they have made 
flowers with longer or shorter stems, and I am told by Mr. Galloway that the 
habit of flowering was changed so that the plants produced the maximum 
number of flowers in the months when violets bring the highest prices. ' 
These scattering examples indicate the preeminent importance of aristo- 
cratic blood in fruit propagation. Unfortunately for horticulture, little atten- 
tion has been paid to the aristocracy of the trees from which the orchard 
fruits are multiplied. Nurserymen supply the demands of trade and a large, 
well grown tree has been the desideratum with fruit growers. Vigor, rapid 
growth, well formed trunks and tops have been the controlling factors in 
propagation. The little variations of larger fruitfulness, finer quality, larger 
size and better foliage have played a minor part in the selection of buds or 
cions. 
During the last few years a discussion has arisen over the merits of 
so called pedigree plants. We would express our appreciation of the efforts of 
those nurserymen who have been studying the individuality of given plants 
within a variety and whose records of hardiness, fruitfulness and resistance 
to disease have become well established. The buds from the Winesap apple 
No. 1 would be expected to excel those taken from No. 2 in fruitfulness, but 
there would be no justification in calling the buds from tree No. 1 “pedigree 
buds.” They might be called with propriety “selected buds.” The pedigree 
of an individual embraces its genealogy, which, as generally understood, 
consists in the history of its ancestors for a number of generations. It is 
important, not by virtue of a large number of generations through which it 
can be traced, but by virtue of the quality of the individuals in the ancestry. 
Do not be deceived by the term “pedigree.” The term is appropriate only when 
the record of a tree has been recorded through several generations, and it is 
valuable only where the generations have shown a tendency to vary into 
