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else left offspring which have inherited their albino nature. This 
shows them not only constant in their peculiarities, but also that 
these are bred in the plant and capable of inheritance. Zpiphegus 
Virginiana and Brunella vulgaris offer the same proofs. Nor has 
the influence of locality much or anything to do with it, for a plant 
of the Lobelia syphilitica, which originally grew in a swamp, was 
transplanted to a comparatively dry garden a mile or more away, 
yet came up and blossomed white the next year. pike 
Let us now see what the experience gained in the cultivation of 
white varieties can tell us. Probably the Japanese have brought the 
art of eliminating color from plants to the greatest perfection. Scores 
of species and genera have been by them variegated in the most 
peculiar manner. But thisisnever constant in this country, but after 
a while always tends to revert to the primitive color again. The elim- 
ination of the green color from leaves has been sometimes carried to 
such an extent that no color is visible except a faint shade along the 
midribs, When this degree is reached it is fatal, and not only does the 
plant become unhealthy and generally die, but it is impossible to per- 
petuate its peculiarity either from seeds or cuttings. In thecase of 
Geraniums with variegated white and green leaves, I have been told 
that it seems necessary for the green to be in the middle of the leaf 
and the white in the form of a band around it. In this case the 
variety can be propagated, but if the white should take possession of 
the middle, and crowd the green to the edge, it cannot be. It seems 
necessary for the green color to have possession of the midrib. The 
effect of an increase in light and heat is very marked, and florists 
have to be continually on the lookout, when a variety of any plant 
is obtained, that it does not revert back to its normal color. Car- 
nations, which are perfectly white during the cool autumn and 
winter months, will frequently become red streaked in a greater or 
less degree, as soon as the sun has gained increased power of light 
and heat in the spring. 
From these facts we may conclude that Nature resents all 
attempts at the elimination of color from plants, and that this elim- 
ination is at the expense of the vitality of the plant, to a greater 
or less degree, and depends upon the same laws that relate to 
albinos in the animal world, which are proverbially weaker than 
their colored kindred. Even in those albino plants which occur 
in a state of nature, the growth and vigor is conspicuously less than 
that of colored individuals immediately beside them, although the 
number of the former would perhaps exclude this as a fair comparison. 
As there seems to be no tendency to reversion in these natural 
albinos, they might perhaps be made permanent varieties and be 
valuable on that account. No doubt this permanence is due to the 
change being sudden, leaving no trace of color by intermediate steps, 
while in cultivated examples the white has generally been obtained | | 
by a gradual selection of less and less darkly colored ones, and hence 
there would be a greater tendency to reversion back through these 
steps again. Besides this, in a state of nature the organs of fructifi- 
cation are secure, and hence the plant may propagate from its seed, 
while artificial selection and cultivation is frequently at the expense 
