436 Ever-sporting Varieties 



or region requires the systematic subdivisions 

 and should always use his utmost efforts to 

 keep them as they are. There is no intrinsic 

 difficulty in the statement that different parts of 

 the same plant should constitute different va- 

 rieties. 



In some cases different branches of the same 

 plant have been described as species. So for 

 instance with the climbing forms of figs. Un- 

 der the name of Ficus repens a fine little plant is 

 quite commonly cultivated as a climber in flower 

 baskets. It is never seen bearing figs. On the 

 other hand a shrub of our hothouses called 

 Ficus stipulata, is cultivated in pots and makes 

 a small tree which produces quite large, though 

 non-edible figs. Now these two species are sim- 

 ply branches of the same plant. If the repens is 

 allowed to climb up high along the walls of the 

 hothouses, it will at last produce stipidata- 

 branches with the corresiDonding fruits. Ficus 

 radicans is another climbing form, correspond- 

 ing to the shrub Ficus ulmifolia of our glass- 

 houses. And quite the same thing occurs with 

 ivy, the climbing stems of which never flower, 

 but always first produce erect and free branches 

 with rhombic leaves. These branches have 

 often been used as cuttings and yield little erect 

 and richly flowering shrubs, which are known in 



