3?2 ON TUB VARIEGATION OF PLANTS. 



cultivated. It is therefore sufficiently evident, that th« 

 kind of variegation which I have described is neither the 

 offspring oil', nor counectcd with, disease or debility of any 

 .kind. 

 Variegated But the same inference must not be drawn respecting 



*f e ' other variegated plants; for variegation itself appears to 



consist of several distinct kinds. The leaves of a variety 

 * of the common cabbage are often seen, in the cottage 



garden, curiously tinged with different shades of red and 

 purple; like the leaves of the vines which I have described : 

 but in the cabbage these colours combine and melt into each 

 other, whereas in the vines the distinct colours are separat- 

 ed by well defined lines. The colours of the cabbage are 

 trat:: fcrred to its offspring, which is perfectly hardy and 

 vigorous. 

 Shotted lettuce. Xfc$ spotted lettuce must also be classed with variegated 

 plants, and the offspring of this is as hardy as those of 

 other varieties : but the most common kind of variegation, 

 Leaves striped i" which the leaves are variously striped with white and 

 Trith white and y e iIo\% , though not the offspring, as some writers have 

 patently con- imagined, of disease, is, how r ever, closely connected with 

 oected with some degree of debility ; possibly owing to the imperfect 

 action of li^ht on all such parts of the leaves as are cither 

 white or yellow. For I have observed, that variegated 

 hollies are less patient of shade, than such as are wholly 

 green ; and I have never seen any plants, the leaves of 

 which are wholly white or yellow, that continued to live 

 wholly beyond a single season. A variegated plant of the rasp. 

 ^:ute oryrUowbvj.j.y^ which sprang from seed in my garden, became 

 wholly white in the third year ; but it perished in the suc- 

 ceeding winter, and I should be disposed to conclude, that 

 .plants the leaves of which are entirely white or yellow, 

 cannot long survive; but that du Hamel* has described a 

 variety of the peach tree, of which he says, u son bois, 

 ses feuilles, ses ileurs, et son fruit, tant extirieurement 

 qu'interiurement, sont tout a fait blancs." This variety 

 is at present, I believe, wholly unknown to our gardeners; 

 and I suspect, that it was always a debilitated plant, and 

 that it in consequence exists no more. I am, &c. 



THOMAS ANDREW KNIGHT. 

 * In.his r I reatise on Trees.— Art.iclt Peach Tree. 



XIII. Method 



