THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
1 69 
the same kind. Now, every nucleus or primordial cell is 
formed in the protoplasm, and it would seem that the 
protoplasm should determine the kind ; but this is not 
the fact. Neither is it the root that affords the sap, 
nor the leaf that elaborates it, nor the protoplasm 
formed from it. I have a natural pear tree which 
many years ago was grafted with St. Michael, the St. 
Michael with Dumnore, and the Dumnore with Beurre 
d'Anjou. The wild stock furnishes all the sap that 
passes up through the four kinds of wood, which is 
elaborated by the Anjou leaves, and forms protoplasm 
in the cambium of the Anjou sap. It is certainly Anjou 
protoplasm, for it forms Anjou cells, buds, fruit and 
wood. But this same Anjou protoplasm passes down a 
little lower and forms Dunmore cells, buds, fruit and 
wood, and still lower it forms St. Michael cells, buds, 
fruit and wood, and still lower the wild fruit of fifty 
years ago is found, and all this takes place when there 
are only Anjou leaves on the tree. Now when the pro¬ 
toplasm leaves the Aujou top it is full of primordial 
cells formed there, which if matured there would be 
Aujou. What changes their nature as they pass down? 
I come to the conclusion that each kind of wood must 
have an inherent power to determine its own kind of 
fruit, and that the nuclei or primordial cells have their 
kind determined by the wood where they are matured, 
and not where they originated. Every kind of wood 
imparts something to every parent cell matured in it 
that determines what kind of fruit the tree coming 
from it shall bear. And every tree coming from such a 
cell must be true to its kind. Now if there is any way 
by which the contents of two cells determined by 
different kinds of wood should be united, would not 
the union be a hybrid? We have already seen that 
such a result follows hybridizing and cross fertilizing. 
We have also seen that in building up a tree the cells 
absorb the cell walls between them and unite their 
contents and proceed to form new cells by their united 
contents. Now, we arc constantly bringing such dif¬ 
ferent cells in contact by the process of grafting, and it 
is in grafted trees that sports are generally, if not 
always, found. A cell in a scion is placed in contact 
with a cell in the stock.—they absorb the cell walls 
between them, unite their contents, and these proceed 
to build a strain of wood different from either, and in 
time this blossoms and bears fruit, uniting the qualities 
of both scion and stock. It is a graft hybrid that is 
called a sport. I think all sports come from a union of 
cells of different varieties, though we may not always 
trace this. As in the animal kingdom, the mixed 
strain may reach far back,— sometimes over several 
generations; so in plants, the strain may not become 
apparent for years, but when it appears it gives a new 
variety. 
“But there is another union of cells to which I wish 
to refer. A bud is virtually a single parent cell in its 
winter costume, with its spring ration enclosed. These 
bud-cells may be split, and the halves of different ones 
united, thus mixing their contents as effectually as in 
hybridizing. Mr. Meehan assures us that he has done 
it. During the last season I split the buds of several 
kinds of Apples and united them, and have three united 
buds living. I cannot tell what kind of fruit they will 
bear, but I know that halves of different buds united 
and grew well. This is a union of different cells, and I 
see no reason why their substance did not unite to form 
a parent cell, which multiplied itself to build up the 
shoots just as any other cell does; and I cannot see why 
it will not be a mixed or hybrid wood and bear a mixed 
or hybrid fruit. If it does, I shall not call it a sport, but 
a graft hybrid; and such are all sports. They are hy¬ 
brids resulting from the union of different cells. This 
certainly applies to the variegated Laburnum, Jessamine 
and Abutilon, which, we know, were the result of graft¬ 
ing; and, I think, equally well to the Rose, the Apple, 
and all other sports. I come to this conclusion from the 
application of principles found in the works of the most 
distinguished authors in our valuable library. Most of 
these authors speak of sports and graft hybrids; but 
none attempt to account for them except ex-President 
Clarke of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, and 
he rather doubtingly, in his report for 1870. He says: 
1 It may be possible that a part of the cell of the scion 
may unite with a part of a cell of the stock, and form a 
kind of mechanically crossed cell, capable of reproducing 
itself in infinite variety.’ If he had said capable of pro¬ 
ducing a new variety, it would have been nearer the 
truth. But if he had considered what he had already 
stated about the union of cells by the absorption of their 
transverse septa, he would have seen that it was not 
necessary to take parts of cells, but by simply bringing 
cells of different varieties together they will often ab¬ 
sorb the intervening cell-walls and unite their contents, 
and form a mixed cell producing a new variety, and all 
that is mechanical about it is the method by which the 
cells are brought in contact. From the foregoing, I 
conclude that all vegetable sports are hybrids, produced 
by the natural union of cells of different varieties, and 
that, when more familiar with the subject, we shall no 
longer call them sports but hybrids. ’ 
DRUMMOND PHLOX. 
In the year 1835 Mr. Drummond, a botanical collector 
in the service of the Glasgow Botanical Society, while 
traveling in Texas, discovered this pretty species of 
Phlox, which bears his name. It was one of the last 
plants that he sent home, for soon afterwards he visited 
Cuba and died there. Sir W. Jackson Hooker, in nam¬ 
ing the species Drummondii, remarked that he did so in 
order that it might serve as a frequent memento of its 
illustrious but unfortuuate discoverer. Never were 
words more truly spoken, for wherever annual plants 
are grown the different varieties of Drummond’s Phlox 
are found to be occupying a prominent place, and if the 
illustrious Drummond had only given us this single 
plant he would well deserve our deepest gratitude and 
respect. 
The Phlox belongs to the natural order Polemoniaceae, 
and is a half hardy annual, of upright yet slender 
growth, attaining a height of from eight to eighteen 
inches, and produces its various colored flowers in the 
greatest profusion from July until frost. Since its in- 
