62 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



which exist between the bud and the seed, however, which I had the 

 pleasure of presenting before this Society upon a former occasion, it will 

 not be any more surprising that a variation should occur in the shoot 

 produced from a bud than in the developed plumule starting from a seed. 

 The rule is uniformity, in both cases. The breeder's axiom, that "like 

 will produce like," is the usual condition, and, fortunately, the common 

 result, so that every cutting, graft, bud, and layer, that we use in propa- 

 gation, or the tubers and seeds that we plant for our field and garden 

 crops, will produce plants similar to those from which they were taken, 

 and thus our varieties are continued indefinitely. But every now and 

 then there is an exception to this rule ; some bud will be found to have 

 within itself the power of producing a different result. This is not 

 unfrequently observed upon the plant or tree. The bud becomes a shoot 

 that may have a weeping, instead of an upright habit; it may be clothed 

 with abnormally shaped or with parti-colored leaves, and striped bark; 

 it may even yield us striped fruit, like the panache pears, or, as in the 

 apple, the smooth, and shining, striped surface of the Bcnoni, may be 

 covered with a coating of russet. The Neat Russet may have a broad, 

 clear stripe of deep red, or the Milam, its close congener, may be more 

 or less coated with russet, so as to puzzle the most astute pomologist to 

 say which is which. The Red Russet is supposed to be such a variation 

 or sport from the Baldwin, which it closely reseml^Ies in habit of tree 

 and in flavor of fruit. Some of the varieties of peaches have originated 

 in this way, and are said also to perpetuate their peculiarities by seed as 

 well as by bud. The nectarine and the peach are known to have 

 mutually varied in this manner, and the former is believed to be only a 

 bud-variation from the latter. 



There is a very curious instance of bud-variation that occurs in the 

 weeping willow, in which the leaves are changed from their normal con- 

 dition to a twisted, or spiral form. This is known as the Ring willow, 

 and by some supposed to be a distinct species. That this is only a sport, 

 or bud-variation, is proved by finding the same ti'ee reverting, in whole 

 or in part, to the normal type of flat leaves. 



Several of our favorite cultivated roses are also known to be simply 

 bud-variations. One of the most remarkable of these is the common 

 Old Red Moss, which not only has sported from the Provens, but which 

 occasionally reverts back to the original smooth form, without the moss, 

 sending up a shoot of this character, although it has long been propa- 

 gated by cuttings that came true, and though its seeds have produced 

 other varieties of mossy roses. 



It is not at all uncommon to find marked differences in the form and 

 coloration of the foliage of some of our native forest trees that are bud- 

 variations, which, no doubt, are capable of being multiplied by budding 

 or grafting, and thus treated, they would appear to be distinct species, to 

 the casual observer. 



Potatoes, of whatever form and color, may be safely planted with the 

 assurance that we shall harvest a crop of tubers of the same shape and 

 color; but this is not universally the case, for once in a great while we 



