THESE need not be taken as mutually exclusive propositions; for as "God helps those who help themselves," andman's work in this respect is mainly, if not wholly in directing the course or tendency of Nature, so there is a just sense in which we may say, " the art itself is Nature," by which the greatest triumphs of horticultural skill have been accomplished. Moreover, I am not one of those naturalists who would have you believe that nothing which comes by degrees, and in the course of nature, is to be attributed to Divine power.

The answer I should give to the question, as we thus put it, is:

1. Some fruits were given to man as they are, and he has only gathered and consumed them. But these are all minor fruits, and such as have only lately come within the reach of civilized man, or are not thought worth his trouble. Huckleberries and Cranberries, Persimmons and Papaws are examples, taken from this country. Whether even such fruits have or not been under a course of improvement irrespective of man, is another question.

2. Others have come to man full flavored, and nearly all that he has done has been to increase their size and abundance, or extend their season. Currants and gooseberries, raspberries and blackberries, chestnuts, and above all, strawberries, are of this class.

3. But most of the esteemed and important fruits, as well as the grains, have not so much been given to man as made by him. The gift outright was mainly plastic, raw material, time and opportunity. As to the cereal grains, it is only of the oat that we probably know the wild original; of wheat there has been an ingenious conjecture, partly but insufficiently confirmed by experiment; of the rest, no wild stock is known which is not most likely itself an escape from cultivation. Of some of them, such especially as Maize, not only can no wild original be indicated, but in all probability none exists.

So of the staple fruits; of some the wild originals can be pretty well made out; of more, they are merely conjectural; of some they are quite unknown and perhaps long ago extinct.

To cite examples in confirmation or illustration of these points, to note how very ancient some of our varieties of common fruits are, and how very recent certain others - to consider how they have originated, with or without man's conscious agency, and how they have been perfected, diversified and preserved, mainly under man's direct care - would be to expand this note into an essay, and yet to say nothing with which pomologists are not familiar.

It would be curious to speculate as to 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 of the Gulf of Mexico, and the intervening Mississippi, instead of the Levant, Mesopotamia and the Nile, and our old world had been opened to us a new world less than 400 years ago.

Seemingly, we should not have as great a variety of choice fruits as we have now, and they would mostly have been different, but probably neither scanty nor poor.

In grapes, at least,'we would have been gainers. Our five or six available species, of which we are now just beginning to know the capabilities, would have given us at least as many choice sorts and as wide a diversity as we now have of pears; while pears would be a recent acquisition, somewhat as our American grapes now are. Our apples would have been developed from Pyrus coronaria; might have equalled anything we actually possess from Pyrus Mailus in flavor, though perhaps not in variety, if it be true, as Karl Koch supposes, that the apples of the orchards are from three or four species. Our plums would have been the progeny of the Chicasa, the Beach plum, and our wild red and yellow Prunus Americana, which have already shown great capacity for improvement; our cherries might have been as well flavored, but probably not as large as they now are. But instead of peaches and figs, we should be discussing manifold and most luscious varieties of persimmon and papaw, the former probably equal to the kaki just acquired from the far east.

As to strawberries, gooseberries and currants, we should have lost nothing and gained something, as we possess several species besides the European types themselves; as to blackberries and raspberries we should have been better off than now, by the earlier development and diversification of our indigenous species. And we might have had all our finest strawberries a thousand or more years ago, these having come from our American types, Fragaria Virginiana with its varieties (which, as well as the old world F. Visca, occurs all across the continent,) and F. Chilensis which ascends the Pacific coast to Oregon.

Then we should consider how much earlier our race, with an American birth place, would have been in possession of Tomatoes, of the Pineapple, of the Cherimoyer and the other Custard apples, of the Star-apples and other sapotaceous fruits, of Chocolate, of Lima Beans in all their varieties, of Pea nuts; not to speak of Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, and "Jerusalem," (that is Gira-sola or Sunflower) Artichokes; the last supplemented by our Ground-nut (Apios tuberosa) would have been the first developed esculent tubers, and would probably have held their place in the first rank along with Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes of later acquisition.

Among the causes and circumstances which have given to the fruits of temperate climates of the old world their pre-eminence, opportunity is one, How many potential fruits of value lie undeveloped in this country we know not, and more, shall never know. They have lost their opportunity. Necessity, which is the mother of pomology as well as of other invention, has been fully supplied out of other accessible, and in some cases no doubt originally better materials.

There are some, however, for which evidently " a good time is coming." Of these, our wild grapes are foremost. They have such a start already, and seedlings, whether from crosses or otherwise, can be produced and selected and reproduced in so short a space of .time, that they will probably have achieved their position when the American Pomological Society holds its centennial celebration.

Blackberries, from Rubus villosus, are in similar case; and if due attention be paid to the Low Blackberry or Dewberry, and to the Sand Blackberry of New Jersey and farther south, the foundation for a greater diversity of excellent sorts will be laid.

As to Cranberries, already an important staple, increase of size and abundance of production are all that are to be expected. It is easier to bring about improvements in the direction of sweetness, than in that of acidity. Huckleberries, also, have probably nearly reached their perfection unassisted.

A few wild fruits may be mentioned which manifestly have great capabilities, that may or may not be developed in the future. The leading instances in my mind are the Persimmon and the Papaw, - not the true Papaw, of course, which we have in Florida, but the Asimina or Western Papaw, so-called. Both Persimmons and Papaws are freely offering from spontaneous seedlings, incipient choicer varieties to be selected from; both fruit when only a few years old, thereby accelerating the fixation of selected varieties into races; and both give fruits of types wholly distinct from any others we possess of temperate climates. He that has not tasted a Kaki has no conception of the capabilities of the Diospyrtis genus. The Custard Apples of the West Indies give some idea of what might be made of our Papaw, when ameliorated by cultivation and close selection from several generations. I have understood that one of the veteran pomologists of the country, Dr. Kirtland, of Ohio, a good while ago initiated a course of experiments upon the Papaw, in this regard; it would be well to know with what success, and whether the breeding and selection have been continued through successive generations.

Our American plums, already mentioned, have for many years been in some sort of cultivation, and have improved upon the wild forms; but I suppose they have not been systematically attended to. Their exterior liability to black-knot and other attacks renders them for the present unsuccessful.

Finally, if pomology includes nuts, there is a promising field uncultivated. Our wild Chestnuts are sweeter than those of the old world; it would be well to try whether races might not be developed with the nuts as large as matrons or Spanish Chestnuts, and without diminution of flavor. If we were not too easily satisfied with a mere choice among spontaneous Hickory nuts, we might have much better and thinner shelled ones. Varying as they do excessively in the thickness of the shell and in the size and flavor of the kernel, they are inviting your attention, and promisiug to reward your care. The Peccan is waiting to have the bitter matter between the shell and the kernel bred out; the Butternuts and Black walnuts to have their excess of oil turned into farinaceous and sugary matter, and their shells thinned and smoothed by continued good breeding; when they will much surpass the European Walnut.

All this requires time, almost unlimited time; but it is not for those who are enjoying the fruits which it has taken thousands of years to perfect, to refrain from the good work which is to increase the enjoyments of far future generations.