102 ON VARIETIES, RACES, SUB-SPECIES, AND SPECIES. 



grafting, provided the graft was taken from a healtliy plant. 

 M. Reynier of Avignon, no mean authority in such matters, is 

 of the same opinion. 



Although the facts brought together by M. Puvis, in the first 

 part of his work, favour tlie view from which we dissent, we 

 find opinions by no means so favourable stated in the latter part 

 of the same work, which is devoted to tlie consideration of the 

 production of new varieties by sowing and crossing : take for ex- 

 ample the following : — 



" In all the families of plants cultivated by man, he may then 

 almost always obtain something Letter tlian ivhat lie has got. 

 Nature abounds in resources and combinations, and she always 

 recompenses everj- one who studies her with care, perseverance, 

 and jutigment. The quality which distinguishes man from otlier 

 organized beings is, that he is capable of improving both himself 

 and everything he touches. The Almighty lias given liim a sort 

 of dominion over a nature itself capable of improvement." 



Kovv how can man obtain something better than what he has, 

 if, as M. Puvis before stated, not only plants obtained by divi- 

 sion, but varieties and species, die worn out? How is it possible 

 for plants to get more feeble as they grow older, and yet to 

 yield seed witli a tendency to produce more perfect varieties? 

 How can we reconcile the statement that man is an improving 

 creature, with that before quoted from the same author, and ac- 

 cording to which the human species has passed the age of exu- 

 berance, strength, and vigour . . . the intellectual power of the hu- 

 man mind, submitted to all the chances of the organisation of 

 the species, is less extensive, less vigorous, less creative ; we have 

 arrived at the age when physical strength decreases — at the age 

 tohen organisation is enfeebled and capable of less exertion 1 



In short, 



1. The facts which are most to be relied upon do not prove 

 the degeneration or extinction of plants propagated by division, 



2. If it be true that several varieties of cultivated plants no 

 longer exist, we do not know that their disappearance is due, as 

 Knight and Puvis think, to their organisation ; we are of opinion 

 that the disappearance of at least a certain number of them 

 has been caused by accidental circumstances. 



§ VI. CONSEQUENCES OF THE PRECEDING FACTS WITH RESPECT 



TO VINE STOCKS. 



If, remembering the preceding facts, we endeavour to arrange 

 what we know of the natural history of stocks, we shall have no 

 difficulty in ascertaining those points on which we have little 

 information, and which require to be cleared up by experiment : 



