1884 .] 
PEODUOTION OF NEW PKUITS.-DOUBLE PETUNIAS. 
117 
PKODUCTION OF NEW FRUITS.* 
ATURAL fertilisation, as I have told 
you before, unaided by the band of 
man, is as old as creation, but the 
knowledge of manual fertilisation, the 
ability of man to assist nature in the process 
of improvement, seems to have been mostly 
withheld from us until the present age. Won¬ 
derful is this fact, but it is not more so than 
the unlimited extent to which it may be carried 
by the genius and sagacity of him who would 
co-operate with nature in this enchanting 
labour. 
Strange, indeed, that this art should have 
been held in suspense for so many ages, not 
until our own time to be brought into practical 
use. But, thanks to the Disposer of all tem.- 
poral concerns, it has now come as the har¬ 
binger of a progress which is to revolutionise 
and improve the fruits of the earth while time 
shall last. Thanks, too, to Knight, Herbert, 
Lindley, Darwin, Gray, and other teachers of 
later times, for the lessons of wisdom which 
have encouraged us to prosecute this most 
noble work. 
The process of fecundation was known far 
hack in the centuries of the past, hut not for 
the production of new and improved varieties 
of plants. From the days of Pliny to the 
present time, the custom of suspending the 
blossoms of the date palm over the trusses 
of the fruit-bearing trees, was known to be 
necessary for the production of fruit. So 
Tournefort and Linnaeus understood the sexual 
order of plants ; but we have no facts to show, 
so far as I know, that either of these writers 
had a knowledge that the crossing of different 
species and varieties would produce from the 
seed a new variety, which would possess in a 
greater or less degree the characteristics of the 
parent plants, and it is doubtful whether 
Duhamel, Van Mons, or Noisette 'were ac¬ 
quainted with this wonderful art for the in¬ 
definite improvement of our fruits. 
This is the art that doth help nature, and 
great as has been the progress in our time, it 
is hut as the dawn of that day when every 
section of our varied climes shall be furnished 
with products of the earth as well adapted to 
each as the people who inhabit them. How 
* From President Wilder’s Addrress to American 
Pomological Bociety {Gardeners’ Monthly, xxv.j351). 
grand the acquisitions of this art in our day ! 
It is only about fifty years since Mr. Hovey, 
myself, or other cultivators of our country, 
attempted the hybridisation of fruits or 
flowers. Now the knowledge of this art is as 
well understood as the cultivation of the soil. 
These are the means provided by an all¬ 
wise Providence for the improvement of our 
fruits. Would that Prince, Downing, Brinckle, 
and those other pioneers who have gone before 
us, could now witness the amazing advances 
which have resulted from their labours in this 
cause. 0 that I could live to participate a 
little longer in the glorious harvest which is to 
be gathered from the influence of this art in 
improving the fruits of our land ! These are 
benefactions which you will leave for the 
generations that are to follow you—memorials 
of your love of nature, of home and kindred, 
which shall live in the hearts ot grateful 
millions, long after you shall have been sleep¬ 
ing in the dust. 
DOUBLE PETUNIAS. 
HESE plants, having a good dwarf habit 
of growth and flowering very freely, 
are most valuable for decorative 
purposes, when well grown. They are 
easily increased by cuttings put into a little 
heat. Plants for spring and early summer 
flowering should be propagated early the 
previous autumn, and should be kept growing 
in a very gentle heat through the winter. 
They should be set near the glass, and kept 
stopped and watered carefully, and shifted into 
larger pots when they require it. The plants 
for autumn flowering should be propagated 
early in spring, and grown through the 
summer season in cold pits or frames. The 
stopping of the young branches should be care¬ 
fully attended to, and they should also be kept 
carefully tied out, so as to form nice compact 
dwarf bushy plants. The plants should not 
be stopped after the middle of July, hut 
should then be allowed to grow into specimens, 
these will commence flowering towards the 
end of August, and will continue to flower 
up to December. When the specimens are 
well grown, they are very striking and beauti¬ 
ful, and repay any little labour that has been 
bestowed on them. They are plants that keep 
very free from insects, and with a little care 
and attention may be had in very beautiful 
condition during the autumn. M. Saul, 
York. 
