No. 33.] BP PASS 
e 
Some of the exceptions were in the cases of seed of whose past his- 
tory we were unacquainted, and in which presumption of hybridiza- 
tion was quite strong. 
One of the greatest obstacles that exist at present to the improve- 
ment of our farm vegetables is the entire lack of a nomenclature 
whereby the distributor shall know what he distributes, and that the. 
receiver shall know that he has received what he has desired. 
There are many varieties,of corn sold under the same name, as in 
one collection from nine different sources of one of the most. easily 
identified of our varieties, the King Philip, five or seven distinct 
sorts were obtained. In wheat, oats, barley, etc., the same condition 
of things seem to exist, and this receives forcible illustration in the 
great quarto work on the wheats of France, by those eminent seeds- 
men and botanists Vilmorin et Cie., in which no description. of 
varieties is attempted beyond the figures which are given. Before 
then much progress can be expected in our efforts to study into the 
adaptation of varieties through the gaining of knowledge concern- 
ing the effects of climate, culture, crossing and selection, we must 
have a nomenclature whereby different observers can report their 
observation, not upon names of varieties only, but upon varieties — 
themselves, such as can obtain sure recognition as being of the same 
sort. } 
Had agricultural science received the same aid from museum col- 
lections as has natural science, such a condition of affairs would have 
ceased to exist, as the study of collections would have given recog- 
nition to descriptive features, which would have found service in 
establishing a nomenclature for the benefit of the public. To do 
this now, without the assistance of accumulated specimens from 
different regions, and from all possible sources, is a work of magni- 
tude, as types are not recognized as yet by the collector, and varia- 
bilities are more apt to be sought than the typical productions of a 
crop. | 
In any crop, as at present grown, divergencies are numerous, and 
this fact is so well known, that it is useless to occupy our space with 
illustrations, but one will suffice. Sinclair mentions a collection of 
sixty varieties of Ray grass in England in 1823. What constitutes 
a divergence is left to the fancy of the reporter. If, however, these 
divergenciés were subjected to systematic study and comparison, it 
would be found, we opine, that many had no meaning whatsoever, 
while others had a true significance ; that one set were accidental, so 
to speak, the other diagnostic. 
In the case of maize we have given much study, not only to 
sample ears collected by hundreds from over a wide area, but to 
over two hundred growing varieties or samples of different origin, 
and we have studied carefully whole crops grown from single varie- 
ties, so called, of seed, and, we think, we have recognized two sets 
of variations. 
The first accidental, that is, those which have little meaning as 
