84 ox VARIETIES, EACES, SUB-SPECIES, AND SPECIES. 



to say that they are not absolutely identical ; this being so, we 

 can account for tiie modifications produced by referring them to 

 the individual organisation or idiosyncrasy of each seed, which 

 is alone sufficient to remove the plant springing from it from 

 other plants which may be taken as tlie types of the species, sub- 

 species, or race to which they belong. 



A strilcing example of this is afforded by a bed of pinks ; for 

 although they may all come from seeds of the same plant, 

 gathered at tiie same time, and exposed to the same circum- 

 stances, they will present such a difference in the colour, as well 

 as in the form of tlieir flowers, that one would almost tlunk there 

 were as many varieties as indivi(hials. However, we must bear 

 in mind tliat this is not true of all pinks, for we may sow tiiou- 

 sands of seeds of some species belonging to the distinctions Beta, 

 Gamma, Delta, M'ithout obtaining a single variety, the modifica- 

 tions being such as are found in tliose plants to which we liave 

 applied the distinction Alpha. 



It would be as well if tiiose who raise plants, especially fruit- 

 trees, from seed with a view to obtain new varieties, would note 

 the number of seeds sown and of those which have suffered any 

 considerable change : they would then see that such experiments 

 really have some value, and that if the advantages of seed-sowing 

 had not been over-rated by some, they would not have been un- 

 dervalued by others. 



That seeds from the same organ do differ is shown by observa- 

 tion ; thus the grains at the bottom of an ear of corn are better 

 than those at the top, whilst the contrary is true of melon seeds, 

 for the further they are from the peduncle the belter they are. 

 M. Girou de Buzareingues has observed that the seeds at the top 

 of a spike of hemp give more females in proportion to tlie males 

 than do those lower down. 



Thus it appears that, by virtue of organic forces, seeds which 

 are borne by the same plant, under the same circumstances as 

 ren^ards time, soil, climate, if not of exposure, are not necessarily 

 identical, and that therefore we already have one cause of modifi- 

 cation in plants proceeding from one and the same sowing. 



The following circumstances too may influence these modi- 

 fications : — 



1. The seeds may not be all ripe to the same degree. 



2. The seeds, though coming from the same plant, and equally 

 ripe, may be sown at times unequally distant from that at which 

 they were gathered. 



3. vSo far as good quality of fruit goes, the seeds of old fruit 

 trees are better, according to Sageret, than those of young ones. 



4. Everything tending to disturb vegetation, without destroy- 

 ing it, may be a cause of modification : it is thus that M. Sageret, 



