No. 33.] | ~« caret 4 
varieties as these we refer to, that the parent form is enabled to absorb 
some other types without prejudice to its own form, ‘Thus, while 
most beans show the influence of cross-fertilization, the Refugee kept 
the color and form of its seed intact, although planted for two years 
adjoining other varieties. The Waushakam corn grown adjoining 
other varieties last year and this, and blooming at the same time, bore 
ears and kernels this year apparently on type, the exceptions being not 
one thousandth of a per cent. 
We have indications of the fixity of an agricultural race under culti- 
vation by the fact that the same type of maize as found in the Peruvian 
tombs exists at the present day ; that the Flat Dutch turnip is appar- 
ently the same now as when described many years ago; that pumpkins 
exist now in the forms described by the early botanists and by the 
early voyagers ; that many of the types of lettuce now found seem to 
correspond to those in use by the Romans, etc. 
. We have also to notice that in practice even varieties which hybridize 
the most readily are maintained true to type to such an extent as to 
admit of the seeds of varieties being sold by seedmen, and plants 
grown from these seeds in the main come true to the description which 
is offered. 
Upon the whole, from two years’ experience, we must affirm that 
agricultural varieties, in general, possess a fixity under the circum- 
stances of cultivation, and only vary greatly when exposed to conditions 
other than those to which they have become fitted. 
If our opinion of this fixity of varieties under the conditions for 
which they have been trained is correct, then classification and iden- 
tification become possible, and it but remains to develop through trials 
a scheme which shall be scientific in its method, and reliable in its 
conclusions. | 
It certainly seems to me logical and proper to utilize the motive of 
the plant for the purpose of classification. In natural botany form is 
but subservient to structure fitted for the special purpose of self-main- 
tenance of the species under a constant struggle against competitors 
and natural environment, and the floral organs become the representa- 
tive of the dominant motive, and hence offer a basis for natural classi- 
fication. In agricultural botany form and quality, designed for man’s 
convenience, and not for the convenience of the plant, assumes promi- 
nence as the motive, and the floral organs become subservient so far 
as man is concerned, and in so faras they do not appeal to the human 
desire for change, and hence in agricultural botany classification must 
logically be established upon those fixed forms which have been pro- 
duced and are maintained by the art and skill of man. In both nat- 
ural and agricultural botany heredity is a factor which alike prevails, 
and, hence in the use of two different dominant motives for classifica- 
tion, we must not expect the two systems to coincide in the grouping 
and. arranging, but oftentimes opposition. ‘Thus giving prominence 
to the form of the part developed through man’s agency would bring 
into one group those roots which hold a resemblance which is to be 
recognized as of acommon type, as for instance, the Rose China Winter 
Radish and the Carenton Half Long Carrot, both of which have cylin- 
drical roots premorse at the tip; under the natural system these varie- 
ties would be correctly classed as belonging to two different orders. 
