226 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ October, 
manured, dug deeply, and planted with, bulbs and spring-flowering plants. 
When this is done, any contemplated alterations may be proceeded with at once. 
This is the best season for planting all the hardier trees and shrubs. Leaves 
will now begin to fall fast, and will require daily sweeping up. Mow lawns in 
dry weather, and sweep and roll wvalks.—M. Saul, Stourton. 
YAKIATION IN PLANTS. 
T may perhaps, at first sight, seem to be contrary to the divine command 
^ that the earth should bring forth “ the herb yielding seed after his kind, and 
*1^ fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind,” for the species of plants to 
Y have since branched off into infinite varieties for the use of man. But the 
decree seems to have had no such limits as those set by the Genera and Species of 
science. The working of Nature’s laws, indeed, is in perfect harmony with the 
words of Holy Writ. The deviations observed in the various species of a genus 
are effected by the fecundation of the seed through the influx of alien pollen, 
and thus the way is opened for all future varieties. 
Some persons consider that cultivated plants are only wild ones reclaimed or 
altered by higher culture. Now, though this conclusion may be the easiest way 
of settling the question, there are fatal obstacles in the way of its acceptance, 
for no sort of culture will turn the Pyrus Malus or Grab into an apple tree, nor 
the Eosa rubiginosa or Sweet-brier into a double rose. The first start or change 
is effected in the seed in the way above mentioned. In support of this view, I would 
add that Eosa sinica is a very distinct species from Eosa sempervirens, and yet 
it is said that the whole of the new hybrid roses originated by the mixture of 
their pollen. This shows that there are connecting links of affinity in the 
families of plants, though their original homes may be thousands of miles apart. 
Thus, though the apple is considered to be the offspring of the wild crab, there 
must have been a union of this and some other Pyrus at a very early period,— 
perhaps in Asia, for we read of it there ; the prophet Joel mentions the apple tree 
as being ‘’withered with other fruit trees while Solomon’s simile, “the smell 
of thy nose is like apples,” indicates that the fruit commonly known by us as the 
apple is meant. There seem to be few, often no varieties, where there is but 
one species in a genus, for in such cases there can be no mixture of fruitful pollen 
to produce hybrids. The Viscum album or Mistleto is one case in point. The 
extended existence of this plant depends solely on seed, and the young germs, 
indeed, show but little signs of life until the second or third season after the seed 
has been deposited on the bark of the foster-tree. 
I nov/ advert to the case of plants being separated for years from their original 
habitats, yet as soon as one of the same family is introduced, a fruitful union 
is readily effected. The Aucuba japonica affords a good example of this ; it has 
been in this country upwards of eighty years, and its blossoms were unfertile 
until lately, when the male was introduced from. Japan, and now the blotched- 
