166 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Angnst 23, 1888. 
thought he could get as good results to-day. Sports are difficult 
to account for; on the May Duke Cherry trees there are every year 
branches where the fruit is from ten to fourteen days later than 
on the rest of the tree. There are certain conditions that we cannot 
understand. Last year he felt some alarm lest the Baldwin Apple was 
degenerating ; his were small, but he found they were as large as 
anyone’s. His early Apples were as large as ever, and his Russets 
never were finer. Something that we could not perceive had affected 
the Baldwins. It frequently happens that something which we cannot 
account for injures a crop. 
Disease is distinct from degeneration. The Flemish Beauty Pear 
cracks ; is this degeneration or disease 1 He notices the cracking of 
Apples more every year ; the wound seems to heal inside and they seem 
to recover, but the fruit is still worthless ; he thought this was disease, 
but could not tell what produced it. The fruit of the Baldwin Apple 
trees that were on his land when he bought it is different from that 
produced by the trees he has planted. There is no fixed type of this 
Apple, but in propagating he has always taken his grafts from trees 
bearing yellow fleshed fruit. A Grape Vine climbed into one of his 
best Baldwin Apple trees and ruined the fruit by causing it to mildew, 
but he has cut away the Vine and expects the fruit to recuperate. The 
modes of cultivation and peculiarities of the seasons are continually 
affecting fruit. Of sixty or seventy varieties of small fruits described a 
few years ago only four are in cultivation now. 
Mr. E. W. Wood said that the question of degeneration had been much 
discussed, but no one could deny the fact, whether he attributed it to 
disease or other causes. He thought the essayist’s comparison of vege¬ 
table with animal life might have been carried further. Man adapts 
himself to changes of climate by changes of clothing, and if we could 
do the same by trees we might be sure of good crops everywhere and in 
every season. Cultivation under glass effects this result, and hence 
Peaches in houses retain their health and produce regular crops. He did 
not agree with Mr. Hovey in regard to the Peach, but thought we cannot 
cultivate it as formerly. His recollection is that for a series of twenty 
years the crops were as regular as those of Pears are now, or those of 
Apples every two years, but if we attempt to cultivate the same varieties 
to-day we find a marked d’fference. He felt sure that plants do suffer 
from continued propagation by grafts or cuttings ; he has grown remark¬ 
ably strong Verbena plants from seed, but they soon ran out when 
propagated by cuttings. The Hovey Strawberry was perhaps more 
generally grown in New England than any other variety thirty or 
forty years ago, and there is no better kind now if we could grow it, 
but we cannot. Mr. Hovey’s own specimens are not up to the standard 
of twenty-five years ago. In later years the Wilson has been more 
generally grown than any other kind, but it is now being discarded. 
Mr. Hovey said that he had seen Crawford Peaches sold for a dollar 
and a half per dozen, and he had seen a basketful sold for the same 
money. In 1807 Judge Peters said he had an orchard of two hundred 
Peach trees, and he complained that they were subject to disease and 
decay ; and that for forty years they had been short-lived. This was 
near Philadelphia. Further south and in the western country and in 
some parts of New Jersey they were durable and productive, as they had 
formerly been with him. The subject before the meeting is not degene¬ 
ration in Massachusetts, but everywhere, and it should be remembered 
that this is not the native climate of the Peach. The varieties are as 
perfect as ever. Dr. Van Mons’s theory of producing improved varieties 
of fruit was by beginning with the wild species and sowing the seed 
through successive generations ; but anyone would be called crazy now 
who should begin with the wild Fragaria virginiana to improve the 
Strawberry. He asserted that after several generations as good Apples 
could be got from seed as by grafting; but the Seckel, Sheldon, 
Fulton, and all other fine native Pears have come from cultivated 
varieties. There may be degeneration of culture, and we should be 
very cautious in attributing its effects to the degeneration of varieties. 
Mr. Hadwen said that the fact of degeneration is not changed 
because we can point to some of its causes ; but what has become of the 
old varieties 1 We cannot tell how long v; rieties can be made to exist ; 
we may graft on vigorous stocks, but even then the period of existence 
of varieties is unknown. Mr. W. C. Strong objected to the term 
“degeneration;” he would say “liability to dis p asethe instances 
quoted seem to militate against the use of the former word. The Flemish 
Beauty Pear has not degenerated. In some sections as fine specimens 
of this variety are still produced as were ever seen. So also in some 
sections of the country the Peach is as vigorous as ever; so is the 
Keens’ Seedling Strawberry in England. Trees are sometimes in¬ 
vigorated by grafting on stronger stocks ; the Magnolia is an instance. 
The question is whether the tree has become more exposed to disease 
than it once was. The cracking of the White Doyenne Pear may be 
caused by the soil having become exhausted of .some element or 
elements necessary for its perfection. 
Mrs. H. L. T. Wolcott asked, Could not the same Power which has 
limited the life of man to threescore years and ten have limited the life of 
trees also ? Fruits and flowers certainly have gone out of date. There 
may be a consciousness of old age on their part. 
Mr. Hovey said that plants were endowed -with the power of per¬ 
petuation by grafting, which bad not been given to animals. The 
Camellia was introduced two hundred years ago, and the Old White 
Camellia is the same as ever. Varieties do continue ; the Windsor Pear 
is still good in England, though nearly two hundred years old, and there 
is a tree of the old .Summer Ben Chretien at Mount Auburn as good as 
ever. 
Mr. George Hill said that he had cultivated hundreds of varieties of 
Strawberries, and they have always degenerated and gone by r until now 
be cultivates only one variety, the Sharpless. Tomatoes also have run out p 
the plants would blast. As good plants as he could raise of the Boston 
Market Tomato have blasted ; the newer varieties are less- subject to 
this disease. Hybrid vegetables will degenerate unless they are care¬ 
fully cultivated, and the seed is carefully selected ; and tliiis tendency 
seems to be much stronger than the tendency to improve. Old seed is 
better than new which has been allowed to run back. 
Mr. Strong thought the deterioration of vegetables propagated by seed' 
might be due to close fertilisation. What Mr. Hill had said about the 
Boston Market Tomato suggested this point. Darwin’s view was that 
cross-fertilisation always gave the strongest plants. The effects of this 
method of propagation should not be confounded with those of grafting 
and budding. 
Mr. Hills said that many of our improved varieties are more tender 
than the old ones, but the old varieties, once so highly prized, would 
not taste so good now’ as they did when we had no better. The further 
we get from a state of nature the tenderer they seem to become. We 
have a cultivated class of children as compared with those in the 
alleys of our large cities ; are the former degenerated ? It is the same 
with cows ; the improved breeds are more tender, but they are not 
running out. Grafting on seedling stocks is surely changing varieties,, 
though not perceptibly in one year. 
ROSE SPORTS. 
The announcement by Messrs. Keynes, Williams & Co. (p. 119) of a- 
dark sport of Marie Finger Rose is interesting, as sports, to the best of 
my recollection, have generally a tendency to come lighter than the- 
original. A Marie Finger of the colour of Due de Rohan might well be- 
useful, if distinct from Comtesse d’Oxford ; but we have now some close 
gradations of colour in this class ; and it would be difficult to get in a 
new shade between Pride of Waltham, Marie Finger, and Marguerite 
de Roman. 
A general discussion on the subject of sports would certainly be in¬ 
teresting, and might possibly become valuable. We are not content 
nowadays to let Nature keep any secrets which we can worm out of her,. 
Nothing would be so likely to solve the mystery of the cause of sports 
as contributions from the experiences of a large number of observers ; 
and if we could only cause or influence sports, we might perhaps be able 
to make a good many improvements. But, as matters stand, it seems 
likely that same useful sports, especially in the gardens of amateurs, are 
neglected and allowed to perish by not being watched for and propa¬ 
gated. 
Some years ago I had a very curious sport of Gloire de Bourg-la- 
Reine, H.P. The bloom was perfectly globular, and like a Dahlia, every 
petal being quilled. The colour was that of the type, but shaded darker,. 
So globular was it, that it was not an easy matter to say between which 
petals the eye was situated. I cut it a day past its best., and took it to 
the Norwich Show ; but the morning was hot, and when my box was 
opened it looked faint and flabby, and was not shown after all. I was 
afraid that it would be looked upon as a monstrosity, and that I should 
lose points by it. I did not think much of sports then, did not pro¬ 
pagate it, and a fortnight later left for a new home, and never saw the 
original plant again. Alas 1 for lost opportunities, it might have proved 
constant and good, and a new departure in form. Mrs. W. R. Raillem, 
might by now have been a great success. I have learnt a lesson, but 
may never have such another chance. 
Most rosarians have probably had sports of some sort. One year I 
budded several Briars from a single long shoot of Abel Grand without 
noticing anything particular about it. But all these plants proved to- 
be of an entirely different habit from the original, the shoots were very 
long, and had entirely lost the well-known robust habit. It was a sport, 
which might, no doubt, have been called “ Climbing Abel Grand,” but,, 
though these “ climbing” sports may be of use to some people as pillar 
Roses, I did not want it, and purposely did not continue it. The blooms 
were like the type, but a little smaller, as is often the case in “climbing”' 
sports. 
I have at the present moment a strange sport of Marie Van Houtte- 
in my garden, and it is much fasciated, and I left it out of curiosity to 
see how it would manage to bloom. It has accomplished this feat,, 
thanks to a week’s fine weather, in a very decorative style. Seventeen 
pretty flowers, not in clusters, but each with a nice footstalk of about 
6 to 12 inches, the lower stalks being the longest, are now showing 
