s of Westbury, Long Island,
gave a talk on the transplanting of large trees by his methods,
illustrated with lantern slides. This was followed by a talk with
lantern slides, on

HEREDITY IN TREES AND PLANTS

_By Dr. A. F. Blakeslee, New York_

Dr. Blakeslee said in part:

One of the first things we notice as we go out into the open is
diversity in the habits of trees and plants. It is through the details
thus presented that we are able to distinguish one species from another.
You can see this diversity the year round in nut trees, and in the nuts.

If you arrange nuts, or any other objects for that matter, in a curve
according to size, you will find that the most numerous of them are of
about the average size. This is equally true when applied to mankind.
What is the reason?

There are a number of factors affecting this, but, in general, there are
two main causes--environment and heredity. We do not know which is the
more important but both are absolutely necessary.

In the picture being shown we see the influence of the black walnut upon
plants around it. It creates an environment which influences the ability
of other plants to grow near the roots.

It must be remembered, however, that what the animate plant transmits is
not the actual character in question, but the ability of the animate
plant to develop characteristics. By placing the plant near a black
walnut tree we do not affect anything but the capacity of the plant to
develop in certain directions.

I have shown here a diagram to illustrate a certain stock fertilization.
Here we have the plant with its stamen and pistils, the egg cells and
the pollen. There are two types of pollenization, one where the pistil
is fertilized by insects carrying sticky pollen; the other by movement
of the wind carrying the pollen. If I should believe my records, in
attempts to cross trees, I might have a cross between a birch and an
alder, in which the pollen is carried by the wind. I tried once to
hybridize pines. I put some pitch pine pollen on the female flower of
another species and seed resulted. I did this the second year and again
I got seed. The third year I put bags on the female flowers before I
could see them developing. Then I got no seeds. I believe that the
pollen which had caused the seed to set in the preceding instances had
come from the south for perhaps hundreds of miles.

There are times when the pollen of the staminate plant is all shed
bef