i6 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
have merit. It may po.ssess attributes which fit it for some 
entirely new condition or use. A currant or gooseberry 
which is sweet and tender enough to supply the dessert may 
be a useful novelty, while in all other respects it may be in¬ 
ferior to all existing'varieties. And this is a point that we 
should keep constantly in mind — that we need new varie¬ 
ties for unfilled gaps, for new regions, various soils, new 
markets and new household uses. If, therefore, a variety is 
successful, or profitable, with one person only, and fails with 
others, it is worth introducing. The trouble is not so much 
that novelties are unworthy as it is that they are recom¬ 
mended promiscuously and that their particular and distinc¬ 
tive merits are not discovered. Now, I like to think that 
the evolution of cultivated varieties follows the same laws as 
the evolution of new types in nature ; and it is pretty well 
agreed by all naturalists that there are more distinct species 
or forms upon the earth to-day than there have been at any 
one previous time. We are apt to think that both the ani¬ 
mal and vegetable kingdoms have passed the zenith of their 
development, because the greater number of monstrous 
forms are extinct. There were giants in those days. But 
size or bulk is not a measure of the height of development. 
Evolution is perfected only when every phrase and condition 
of external world has some type of life particularily adapted 
to it, and inasmuch as new conditions in the physical fea¬ 
tures of the globe are constantly appearing, there must be 
a constantly progressing attempt on the part of animals and 
plants to adapt themselves to these new conditions. The 
surface of the earth was probably never so varied in physical 
characters as at the present time, and it is safe to assume 
— particularily as such facts as are known support the as¬ 
sumption — that there have never been so many diverse 
forms of life upon the globe as at present, and this differen¬ 
tiation is proceeding as rapidly to-day, probably, as it has 
at any time in the past. In other words, the only limit to 
the expansion and evolution of wild plants is that of the 
surroundings in which they live ; and as cultivated plants 
modify themselves through the same laws, it must 
follow that there is no predetermined limit to their ameliora¬ 
tion or improvement, so long as a man continues to culti¬ 
vate and modify the earth. Every year may witness better 
varieties, until the plant becomes so unlike its ancestors that 
its parentage may be lost or unrecognized, and new specific 
forms even may originate under the hand of man, and this 
has actually occurred in many instances. 
If philosophy teaches us that there is no set or prede¬ 
termined limit beyond which plants may not progress, reflec¬ 
tion must likewise convince every one of us of the essential 
truth of the same proposition. We know that most impor¬ 
tant cultivated plants have come froin a very inferior ances¬ 
try, and some, if not most, fruits have .sprung from parenjts 
which are scarcely edible to civilized tastes. And we have 
a graphic means of comparing the improved, side by side, 
with inferior types in the small-leaved, small and sureoat- 
fruited and often weak and tender “ crabs ” and other seed 
lings, which, however, are only partially reverted to their 
aboriginal condition. And in America, where vast new 
regions have been settled with great rapidity, we have seen 
the extension of fruit growing by means of new and adap¬ 
tive varieties into regions which Avere thought to be unfitted 
for such purposes but a few years ago. It is a fact that all 
plants, especially our fruits, have responded Avith remarkable 
facility to all the ncAv demands Avhich our markets and soils 
and climatic limitations have placed upon them. This re¬ 
sponse has been in the Avay of neAV varieties, and it has, of 
course, been most marked in those fruits Avhich were com¬ 
paratively little developed and to Avhich almost every condi¬ 
tion of cultivation and dissemination was neAV. You Avill 
recall the readiness with which the native plums, within 
forty years, have giA^en us nearly two hundred A^arieties 
adapted to a remarkable range of conditions and uses ; and 
the blackberries and raspberries Avithin a generation have 
given results Avhich show that they will equal, if, indeed, 
they do not eclipse the Avonderful evolution of native grapes 
within a century, and many of you will recall the fact that 
it is less than a generation ago Avhen it AA^as thought that 
roses could not be successfully groAvn out of doors in this 
country. Evolution, therefore, undoubtedly becomes sloAver 
the more the plant is improved, for it has constantly to com¬ 
pete with its oAvn progress, but if Avorthy new varieties are 
less frequent in the old standard fruits, it does not folloAv 
that there are none. 
I assert, therefore, that the tendency to produce neAv 
varieties is the means by Avhich cultivated plants are ever 
more and more improved and fitted into new conditions and 
uses, and novelties must pay if horticulture is to forever 
pay. But not all novelties pay, and the reasons must be 
apparent. They may not be good enough to pay. Novel¬ 
ties are introduced both hastily and indiscreetly. If the 
philosophy of the question, as Ave have considered it, teaches 
us anything, it is ; (i) That the older and more improved 
the type the less the chances of securing a worthy novelty ; 
(2) That there is most use for novelties in those plants Avhich 
are propogated by seeds and by abnormally developed parts, 
because such plants usually quickly run out by variation ; 
(3) That Avorthy novelties appear less frequently in old 
regions than in neAV ones, because of greater competition of 
established varieties there; and, (4) That the merit of a 
variety lies in its adaptibility to some particular use or de¬ 
mand. I therefore look Avith caution upon novelties in the 
old standard fruits and in the old horticultural remons, the 
more especially as these fruits are propogated by buds, and 
the good old varieties remain with us ; and I look with sus¬ 
picion upon all those which are recommended indiscrimi¬ 
nately, indefinitely, generally, and for everything and equally 
for all regions, because their descriptions cannot be truthful 
and cannot be founded upon experience. I believe that the 
time is noAV at hand Avhen a man can establish a more 
lucrative nursery or plant business by giving his novelties 
careful and discriminating tests and by telling Avhat they are 
