Another high authority in these matters, minutely describes the effects of age on varieties of the anemone. "The constitution of anemones," says Mr. Maddock,† undergoes considerable changes with age, which is, perhaps, in a greater or smaller degree, the case with all other vegetables. The anemone will not last over twelve or fifteen years without degenerating, unless it be frequently removed to a different soil and situation; nor will any removals protract or prolong its existence more than thirty or forty years. It generally blooms in the greatest perfection from the fifth to the tenth or twelfth year, after which it gradually becomes smaller and weaker, and if the flower was originally full and double, with age it loses that property; the petals diminish in number, become small and irregular and finally, the sort perishes. It has more than once occurred, that the same variety, although in the possession of many persons residing at remote distances from each other, has been entirely lost in one season, without the possibility of accounting for it in any other manner than the above."

Mr. Knight's hypothesis seems indeed to be based on such numerous indisputable facts, the results of repeated experiments and observations by himself and other practical men, that I could scarcely have believed any serious objection would be urged against it at the present day, by any man whose opinion is entitled to respect. Loudon, who was so decidedly opposed to it at one time, very nearly coincided with Mr. Knight's views lately, as your extract from the Suburban Horticulturist indicates. In the life of Mr. Knight, prefixed to the published collection of his Phys. and Horticultural papers, it is said: "Mr. Knight's hypothesis was so contrary to generally received opinions, that it at first met with considerable opposition; but the increasing decay of the old fruits, even when grafted on the most vigorous stocks, and the superior healthiness of the new varieties produced from seed, has caused Mr. Knight's theory to be almost universally adopted."

Dr. Lindley has indeed himself placed on record the most decided opinion in favor of this hypothesis. - that there is some analogy between vegetable and animal life; that varieties of plants do become feeble and less productive as they become old. In an article in the Gardener's Chronicle of the 6th of September, 1845, he said, "raising seedling potatoes is a practice upon the importance of which we have frequently insisted. All old varieties of those cultivated plants which are propagated by division of the stem and not proportion to its youth, and that all varieties cease, after a few years, to be as productive as they once were. When Mr. Knight's seedlings were originally tried, they yielded in one case at the rate of 68 and 70 for one; no such crops can now be obtained from them."

In the fall of that year, 1845, the blight of the potato was first extensively developed in England, and Dr. Lindley with two eminent chemists were appointed on a commission by the government of the late Sir Robert Peel, to inquire into the cause and suggest a remedy. Considering that I had good reasons to be disatisfied with their explanation, and that a more truthful view of the whole cause had occurred to me, I sent three letters to the London Morning Herald, stating my views as to the nature of the malady, and showing that the commissioners were in error in concluding that the disease was of a temporary character; that their explanation was not adequate to account for it, and that their remedial measures alone could not possibly prove efficient.

I need hardly say that time has abundantly proved my objections were well founded. In the article on the 20th of Dec., 1845, Dr. Lindley, when objecting to ray notions in the matter said, "we regard the notion that the races (varieties) of plants wear out, as utterly baseless and visionary. The health of the potato is not, with any certainty, to be increased by raising new varieties from seeds. The idea of renovating the potato crops of Europe by raising new varieties from seed is a dream. We advise growers not to indulge in a vain hope that seedling varieties will be any better than what they now have." May I not well ask, if in March and September, it was certain that in the course of time the produce of varieties diminishes, and they become feeble as they grow old, what had occurred since; what new light had there been thrown on the subject, that these opinions should in December be denounced as "utterly baseless and visionary?" If in March and September, renewing the vigor of potatoes by raising new varieties from seeds, was a point of immense importance, a practice always attended with some advantage, why in December should the idea of renovating the health of the potato crop by raising a succession of new varieties from seed be pronounced a dream, and the hope that seedlings would be any better than those we now have be dismissed as vain?

Respectfully yours, John Townley.

Moundville, Marquittt county, Wis.

We commend Mr. Townley's article - certainly one of the most interesting we have published in this Journal - to the perusal of our readers. Ed.