218 SELECTION. Chap. XXL 



variety of plum^^ had to be carefully protected, as tliey were 

 usually stripped of all their buds during the winter, whilst 

 other sorts growing near them escaped. The root (or en- 

 larged stem) of Laing's Swedish turnip is preferred by hares, 

 and therefore suffers more than other varieties. Hares and 

 rabbits eat down common rye before St. John's-day-rye, 

 when both grow together.^* In the south of France, when 

 an orchard of almond-trees is formed, the nuts of the bitter 

 variety are sown, " in order that they may not be devoured 

 by field-mice ;" ^^ so we see the use of the bitter principle 

 m almonds. 



Other slight differences, which would be thought quite 

 unimportant, are no doubt sometimes of great service both 

 to plants and animals. The Whitesmith's gooseberry, as 

 formerly stated, produces its leaves later than other varieties, 

 and, as the flowers are thus left unprotected, the fruit 

 often fails. In one variety of the cherry, according to Mr. 

 Rivers,^^ the petals are much curled backwards, and in con- 

 sequence of this the stigmas were observed to be killed by 

 a severe frost ; whilst at the same time, in another variety 

 with incurved petals, the stigmas were not in the least 

 injured. The straw of the Fen ton wheat is remarkably un- 

 e(iual in height ; and a competent observer believes that 

 this variety is highly productive, partly because the ears 

 from being distributed at various heights ahove the ground 

 are less crowded together. The same observer maintains that 

 in the upright varieties the divergent awns are serviceable by 

 breaking the shocks when the ears are dashed together by the 

 wind.^'^ If several varieties of a plant are grown together, 

 and the seed is indiscriminately harvested, it is clear that the 

 hardier and more productive kinds will, by a sort of natural 

 selection, gradually prevail over the others ; this takes place, 

 as Colonel Le Couteur believes, ^^ in our wheat-fields, for, as 



" The Reine Claude de Bavay, " Godron, ' De I'Espece,' torn. ii. p. 



* Journal of Horticulture,' Dec. 27, 98. 



1864, p. 61 1. ^« ' Gardener's Chron.,' 186G, p. 732. 



^* Mr. Pusey, in 'Journal of R. ^7 'Gardener's Chronicle,' 1862, pp. 



Agricult. Soc.,' vol. vi. p. 179. For 820, 821. 



Swedish turnips, see ' Gard. Chron.,' ^* 'On the Varieties of Wheat/ p 



1847, p. 91. 59^ 



