SPORTS BECOMING PERMANENT. 



SuiUlcn alterations in tlic quality of scedlinp; plants often occur from no apparent 

 cause, just as those accidental changes, called " sports,'' in the color or form of the 

 leaves, flowers, or fruit, of one single branch of a tree, occasionally break out, 

 we know not why. Of these things physiology can give no account ; but it is 

 certain, say Lindley and others, that when such sports appear, they indicate a 

 violent constitutional change in the action of the limb thus aflected, which change 

 may sometimes be perpetuated by seed, and always by propagation of the limb 

 itself where projiagation is practicable. A sport is a sudden change of one thing 

 iuto another, dilTerent in some striking respect, as when a peach tree produces a 

 smooth fruit (a nectarine) among its downy brood. When some Celccsea suddenly' 

 formed its flowers upon a thickened, flattened stalk, and they became more crowded 

 than usual, we had a cockscomb, which is a "sport." It has a tendency to increase 

 under skilful management, as was shown by Andrew Knight, when he, by a single 



effort, brought a cockscomb plant 

 to measure eighteen inches across, 

 and only seven inches high. 



An analogous change is repre- 

 sented in Fig. 1, which is not un- 

 common in the Canterbury Bell, 

 whose flowering stem becomes 

 fasciated, and the flowers run to- 

 gether into a magnificent crescent- 

 shaped head. Gardeners have not 

 yet attempted to fix this striking 

 character, and yet it might, per- 

 haps, be secured as is the cocks- 

 comb. 



A Mr. Salter, of London, ob- 

 served among his seedling Dahlias 

 one which produced a number of 

 green, scaly flower-heads, but no 

 perfect flowers. This was propa- 

 gated, and every plant was cover- 

 ed with similar heads of scales. 

 All the plants were vigorous, but 

 there was not a single perfect 

 flower-head upon any of them, 

 so that the sport became immedi- 

 ately fixed. Wheat has been pro- 

 duced from the wild grass {^gi- 

 lops ovata), by watching its in- 

 creasing tendency to sport, till it 

 was not excelled in quality on the 

 neighboring farms. M. Esprit 

 Fabre was the patient experi- 

 menter. Thus came our varied 

 Chrysanthemums, &c. &c. 



