PROFESSOR TRACY, in 1877, made
the statement before the Michigan
State Horticultural Society, that
horticulture had advanced but little
in the past 150 years, except in
two directions. The greatest progress had been made by botanists, who had by
systematic efforts originated new varieties. Progress nearly as great has been made by the entomologist in his systematic warfare against insect
enemies. Probably the statement is as true in 1890
as it was thirteen years ago. We should certainly,
also, at this time, credit the botanist with many investigations of the life history of the lower forms
of plant life, which are injurious to cultivated
plants, and in discovering remedies for many of
those most destructive.

Botany, as taught to-day by the best teachers,
is emphatically a science in which the student is
sent directly to nature for his facts. In this way
he becomes an accurately trained and reliable observer. He applies numerous questions to his
plants, by observation, trying many experiments,
and in studying their behavior ; in this manner, the
student cultivates his judgement and learns to draw
correct conclusions.

Well grounded in systematic botany, he is likely
to avoid falling into numerous errors so often made
by persons who learn horticulture as a mere trade.
This systematic side of botany is indispensable to
one in distinguishing and naming plants in cultivation, and in observing their affinities.

Geographical botany may teach of the soil and
climate in which a certain plant thrives, and how to
treat it when carried to a new country. Here,
however, experience, experiment and the judgement
are all valuable aids. Plants are not always found

in a wild state where they will thrive best. This is
true of many of our weeds, and of many plants
cultivated for various purposes.

Who will point out the relationship of plants and
find suitable stocks on which to " work " our cultivated shrubs and trees? The botanist. And the
botanist will know better than to attempt a union
of scions of chestnut on stock of horse-chestnut-
something actually attempted by a horticulturist of
my acquaintance. The resemblance of the fruit of
the one to the seeds of the other deceived him into
thinking the union practicable.

No one, excepting a systematic botanist, would
be competent to visit foreign countries to select
new plants worthy of cultivation. Systematic botany is not only essential in identifying, describing
and classifying plants, but it is well equipped with
all the necessary paraphernalia in the way of technical terms and methods to perform the task
of describing in an exact manner, all "artificial"
forms that have been bred or selected. The time
has already come for more accurate and complete
descriptions of varieties and races of vegetables
than have yet been written.

Cultivated varieties of strawberries are usually
described by the fruit, with a few references to the
leaves and possibly to the length of the stems. The
botanist who had never compared the runners, the
inflorescence and the flowers in detail, will be surprised to find that in them we have very marked
differences which could well be illustrated and de-
scribed. Fifteen years ago or more, I discovered
this fact and described some varieties, though the
descriptions were never published. I have described 150 varieties of apples by a careful examination
of inflorescence and flowers, in most cases making
drawings to equal scales. There are now so many

varieties of cultivated fruits, that we need to make
use of all the good characters that can be found to
aid in making complete characterizations .* I have
many times made the statement that no variety of
fruit can now be called well described, unless the
peculiarities of inflorescence and flowers are considered in connection with every other characteristic
feature.

A knowledge of systematic botany will enable a
teacher or the worker in horticulture to group his
information, thus greatly aiding the memory and
shortening the process of giving or receiving instruction. He learns that plants known as cucurbitaceæ
have monecious flowers, which must be pollinated
by insects, wind or by hand; that they love heat,
are sensitive to frost, that similar insects prey upon
many of them. The garden plants known as crucifera have many peculiarities in common, well
understood by botanists, such as a pungent, watery
juice, the seeds starting early, the young plants
enduring some frost, and in many cases the same
insects trouble numerous species. He learns that
seeds of the umbelliferæ have a low vitality and
are slow to germinate. These are but a few examples out of many which could be given.

The botanist understands why some varieties of
strawberries, apples and other fruits frequently fail
to "set fruit," and in some instances he can pre-
scribe a remedy. He has learned to see that the
visits of insects to the flowers aid in ensuring a
larger crop of fruit, as he knows that the showy
portions of the flowers are hung out as mere advertisements, to attract insects; that surplus pollen
and nectar are placed in the flowers as wages to re-
ward and encourage their visits.

Some knowledge of botany, at least, is essential
to aid the judgement in selecting with intelligence
the sorts that may be crossed or hybridized. It is
also often a great help to a person in quickly detecting some vile weed which has just made its appearance, while the unbotanical might scatter quick-
grass and other troublesome pests far and wide
over his premises before he became aware of their
presence. A knowledge of the shapes, sizes, colors,
markings and internal structure of seeds is valuable to the horticulturist, enabling him to distinguish
the true from the spurious.

(*) The reader who desires to pursue this subject further is referred to Rep. Mich. Poi. Soc. 1873, Proc. Amer. Pom. Soc. 1579 and 1881, Amer. Naturalist 1886.

The trained eye of a botanist is necessary to aid
one to see beauties, defects, harmonies and incongruities in selecting, combining and arranging trees,
shrubs, flowers and foliage plants to best advantage


for producing the most pleasing effect at the least outlay of money and labor.

The man who knows the structure of a tree and
how it grows, would at least be amused at the following statement, once made by a "practical " man
at a meeting of a state horticultural society. To
kill the insects on leaves, to add health and vigor
to a fruit tree and cause it to produce abundantly
of luscious fruit, he bored a hole into the trunk of
the tree, filled it with flowers of sulphur, and secured
it with a plug. He was careful to avoid boring
very far into the tree because he might thereby in-
jure its heart! A knowledge of vegetable physiology
teaches a person the effect on a plant of flowering,
of seeding, of high cultivation or poor cultivation,
of root pruning, of pruning the top at different
seasons of the year. It teaches how to manage
plants for producing flowers, and how to manage
them to prevent their flowering.

A person might as well attempt to become a
surgeon without a knowledge of human anatomy
and physiology as to become a horticulturist with-
out botany. The horticulturist who merely learns
the trade will not so quickly change his practice
and adapt himself to the new circumstances of a
different climate in a remote country, as the one
who has studied well the principles of plant growth.
Many worthless experiments have been made, wasting time and money, attributing results to wrong
causes, from a lack of a knowledge of plants.
No horticulturist without a thorough knowledge
of the principles of several departments of botany
is capable of planning and conducting and interpreting experiments. Think of the time occupied
in making experiments, in discussing the subject in
the press and in conventions on the cause or nature
of pear blight !

In horticulture, in most respects, botany will
make a person more capable. It will make him a
good observer, improve his reason, strengthen his
judgement, cultivate his taste, broaden his views,
weaken his respect for the traditions of his fathers.
It will sharpen his wits, make him a reliable investigator. It will enable him to become a leader instead of a follower.

Who, not a botanist, could ever have imagined
half of the bright thoughts stated by Asa Gray in
his essay " Were the Fruits Made for Man, or Did
Man Make the Fruits?" Here, among other things,
he discusses what our pomology would have been
if the civilization from which it, and we ourselves,
have sprung, had had its birthplace along the
southern shores of our great lakes, the northern

447
shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and the intervening
Mississippi, instead of the Levant, Mesopotamia
and the Nile, and our old world had been open to
us as a new world, less than four hundred years ago.

Who, except the botanist-Darwin-could have
written two of the most suggestive and valuable
works ever produced as guides to the horticulturist?
These are, first, "Animals and Plants under Domestication," second, and in my opinion most valuable
of all books to the horticulturist, "The Effects of
Cross and Self-Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom."

The former is the easier to understand and the
more popular-it has been much read and quoted,
and has already made a lasting impression on horticulture: the latter has yet apparently scarcely produced an impression, and was undoubtedly written
in advance of the times.

The Gardeners' Chronicle remarked, upon the advent of this latter book : " For our horticultural readers the great value of Mr. Darwin's last work consists
in the practical applications which follow from the
author's very numerous, protracted and laborious
experiments, yet it is certain, that those practical results will be a long time filtering into the minds of
those who will eventually most profit by them." The
lines which I have italicized are prophetic.

It is now over fourteen years since this book appeared, yet we have heard of scarcely any horticulturist who have practiced what Mr. Darwin
showed to be advantageous. I have heard of nothing that has since been done in a practical way, in
Europe, to confirm or disprove the experiments of
Mr. Darwin. In this country, I have not heard, as
I now recollect, of a single instance of experiments
in this line, excepting some which I conducted soon
after the book was published. * These results were
presented at several conventions and a report print-
ed in several journals, yet no one seems to have
taken any note of them.

The following from Mr. Darwin's book should be
committed to memory by every progressive horticulturist: " It is a common practice with horticulturists to obtain seeds from another place having
a very different soil so as to avoid raising plants
for a long succession of generations under the same
conditions; but with all the species which freely intercross by the aid of insects or the wind, it would
be an incomparably better plan to obtain seeds of
the required variety, which had been raised for some
generations under as different conditions as possible, and sow them in alternate rows with seeds matured  in the old garden.

(*) See Amer. Journ. Sci. and Arts, May, 1879.

 The two stocks would
then intercross, with a thorough blending of their
whole organizations, and with no less of purity to
the variety: and this would yield far more favorable results than a mere exchange of seeds."
A thorough knowledge of botany will every day
add much to the pleasure and satisfaction of the
horticulturist, as plants in various conditions in the
ever changing seasons are everywhere about him in
great variety and profusion. Such knowledge is
indispensable to enable him to receive the greatest
benefit possible from a visit taken in any country
at any time.

I must say a word in regard to that garden fence
which is mentioned in your May leader, "A New
Science." Thirty or forty years ago, nearly all the
gardens to be found on our best farms were sur-
rounded by a high picket fence to keep out the
hens, the pigs, the puppies and stray cattle. It
also served pretty effectually to keep out the horse
and cultivator and a regular and liberal supply of
barnyard manure. Within such enclosures, small
fruits and vegetables were usually much neglected.
few in quantity and poor in quality, or if well cared
for, the labor was performed by hand at great cost
of sweat and muscle. More recently, in place of the
picket fence, an evergreen hedge has sometimes
enclosed the garden patches, but in modern times,
tidy farmers usually keep fowls, swine and other
live stock securely enclosed, and have torn down,
carried away and abandoned the garden fence al-
together. Even the evergreen hedge is not now
considered essential. As the farm garden has now
become more easily accessible and better planned
for convenience, for tillage by horse and cultivator,
it is better kept, more interesting, oftener visited
and more profitable.

Considering all of these modern improvements,
including a much greater assortment of fruits and
vegetables of new or improved sorts, and also
observing of late the increased enthusiasm and
intelligence given to horticulture, the botanist is
more than willing to call around occasionally to
visit the gardener, look over his asparagus, praise
his lettuce, test his strawberries, and see how his
cantaloupes are progressing. Perhaps the older
botanists neglected the garden because of the formidable pickets of the fence, the want of interest
manifested by the proprietor and the poor show for
"garden sauce." But since things have improved,
botanists are becoming more attentive, Darwin has
already observed the roots of the turnips, the bulbs
of the onions, compared the cabbage heads, studied

448
the curling tendrils of the vines, examined the peas
in the pod, told how the bees benefit the bean crop,
and how and why the slender stems manage to
climb to the top of the poles and swing around in
search of objects still higher. He has not neglected
the esculent tuber from America, nor forgotten to
grapple with the changes of cion as affected by the
stock.
Many other botanists have already condescended
to examine, often suggesting remedies for anthracnose on wax beans, mould on lettuce, rot on tomatoes, smut on onions and sweet corn, and rust on
blackberries. And above, the reader has just seen
that some systematic botanists are beginning to see
that the berries, the pomes, the drupes and the vegetables of horticulture are worthy of their attention
and careful study. With a very little advertising,
some fruits in place of leaves to pay for his visits,
the botanist will describe and classify in workman-
like manner those cabbage heads; the beets and
carrots, and potatoes will receive like attention,
and even those hybrid strawberries, roses, pelargoniums and castor-oil beans will yet be perfectly
described and after some fashion classified, though


owing to former neglect of the proprietors, these
plants may not be eligible to record on account of
defective pedigrees.
With a little more attention to his own intellectual improvement, as well as to be able to raise
larger crops of rhubarb, egg-plants, cauliflower and
finer hollyhocks, there need hereafter be no fear of
neglect of the botanist to lend a helping hand
wherever he can make himself useful. He is already
beginning to make photographs and herbarium
specimens, so far as practicable, of all the sorts of
vegetables, fruits, flowers and foliage plants, not
only of the edible portions at the proper stage of
growth, but likewise the buds and flowers. He is
giving much attention to the seeds of plants, also,
their structure, vitality and points for classification.
With the advent of the agricultural college and the
experiment station, the botanist hereby solemnly
promises in the future to be more attentive to the
wants of the neglected sister, horticulture. Flora
and Pomona shall henceforth begin to regain the
homage paid them in the days of Homer, and much
good shall follow the worship of the sisters.
W. J. BEAL.
Michigan Agricultural College.