THIRTY-THIRD BIENNIAL SESSION 
41 
We will not have time to take up the discussion of this, paper though 
you might like to ask him some direct questions about some of these crosses 
or about the influence of pollen upon the cross. It is an interesting state- 
ment that he makes, that the tree from which the pollen is taken is the 
more influential in the seedling. 
A BASIS FOR THE FUTURE CLASSIFICATION OF THE MANGO. 
F. W. Popenoe, Washington, D. C. 
When a fruit attains commercial importance and is cultivated on an 
extensive scale there arises an urgent need for detailed information respect- 
ing varieties, and for nomenclatural accuracy. If the growers themselves 
do not recognize this need, it is sure to be impressed upon them by an 
exacting and discriminating market, always prompt to demand that the 
product meet certain clearly defined requirements. 
While it may be said that the tropical fruits have been the last to 
require attention of this nature, because of the unimportant part they have 
played in commercial horticulture, with increased transportation facilities 
they are coming more and more into prominence, avocados, mangos, and 
cherimoyas being no longer rare on the fruit stands of large cities, while 
the banana and the pineapple years ago became standard products. 
Vegetative, or asexual, propagation, arising from the desire to perpet- 
uate a choice form originating as a chance seedling is usually the first 
step toward the recognition of the importance of the question of varieties. 
In the last quarter of a century a number of tropical fruits, previously grown 
exclusively as seedlings and not considered important, have come under 
the influence of modern horticultural science, and through the aid of 
vegetative propagation have been raised to the level of valuable horti- 
cultural products. The vegetative propagation of the mango in India, 
however, dates back some hundreds of years; hence, the existence and im- 
portance of varieties has long been recognized. The Hindus, being a fruit 
loving people, have increased their varieties until they now number several 
hundred, and either consciously or unconsciously wrought great improvement 
in the fruit over its wild forms; but, with the characteristic inertia of the 
Orient, they have paid little attention to the systematic culture of the 
fruit, and less to its systematic study, though one could not expect much 
in this latter line. The Arab date growers of Baghdad, however, know 
vastly more about the dates of the entire Arabian peninsula than does the 
average Hindu about the mangos of the Indian peninsula. 
Ancient Practices. 
The Indian has been satisfied to go on multiplying the number of 
varieties indefinitely, perpetuating by the laborious method of inarching 
every seedling that struck his fancy, and tacking a name on to it. Ih other 
