82 ON VARIETIES, EACES, SUB-SPECIES, AND SPECIES. 



food, &c., and if a plant on soil ; when besides it is remembered 

 how impossible it is t'lat there should be a concurrence of iden- 

 tical circumstances, whetlier for all the contemporaneous indi- 

 viduals of one and the same species living in dift'erent and often 

 widely separated places, or for all the individuals of this species 

 derived through a succession of generations from the same male 

 and same female ; if after these considerations we endeavour to as- 

 certain the modifications undergone by organized beings from the 

 influences of which we speak, it is certainly not the extent of 

 these modifications, whether we look at the number of species 

 to which the modified individuals belong, or whether we look at 

 the intensity of these modifications, which surprises us ; but the 

 insuflficiency of these natural causes to change the essential 

 nature of each species, and which are nevertheless susceptible 

 of modification. 



This insufficiency is evident even now where the modifications 

 hav^e been the greatest, tliat is, where man has done his best to 

 favour the influences of natural agents and of all tlie circum- 

 stances capable of acting on the organization of living beings. 



How interesting it would be to know the origin of the varieties 

 and races of plants and animals wliich have resulted from this 

 treatment, and, assigning their respective age, to ascertain the 

 points of resemblance and difference between tliem and the varie- 

 ties we actually have ! How much it is to be regretted that tlie 

 ancients, in speaking of these varieties, have said notliing of their 

 origin, or distinguishing characters, and that we are reduced to 

 mere conjecture on so important a subject ! 



As man was nourished by fruits before he cultivated the land, 

 fruit-trees were probably the first plants modified by being raised 

 from seed, which would be scattered about as well by man as by 

 those birds which lived upon their fruit. 



A great number of our vegetables arose from experiments made 

 in the middle ages by those who attended to their cultivation, and 

 more especially by tlie monks; the varieties of fruit-trees whicli 

 date from this period are probably derived from an accidental sow- 

 in<'-, but transmitted to us by means of grafting, whicii was under- 

 stood in very early times. The taste for flowers, wliich began to 

 spread at the end of the middle ages over Holland and Belgium, in- 

 duced gardeners and amateurs to increase the number of varieties 

 by raising plants from seed. There may have been a few persons 

 towards the latter end of the eigliteenth century who endeavoured 

 to raise fruit-trees from seed, but if there were, they either, like 

 Hardenpont, kept their experiments to themselves, or, like Du- 

 harael, obtained nothing but negative results ; all good varieties 

 were in those days propagated by grafting. 



It was not until the end of the eighteenth century that a few 



