1793. oz varieties of domestic qnimals. . 235 
produce a grey or white foal, even from a black 
mare. Instances of this kind sometimes occur; but 
these are matters not worth pursuing farther at pre- 
sent. Gy din 
The diversities that man may thus artificially pro- 
duce in the animal creation, may be not unaptly 
compared to many of those produced among vegeta- | 
bles, by attentive observation and careful selection, 
nearly of the same kind. It often happens, that the 
leaves of a tree or plant, from the operation of some 
cause that eludes our search, become either wholly 
or in part blotched, or stained with stripes of white 
or yellow or red, in various ways. If plants having 
these peculiarities are multiplied, cither by parting 
the roots, by cuttings, by buds, or by layers, as the na- 
ture of the plant admits, the peculiarities are often 
preserved, without variation, for any lengthof time ; 
and thus a new variety is produced, which never 
would have propagated its kind so as to perpetuate it, 
but for the attention and care of the cultivator*. In 
this manner are our nurseries and gardens filled 
* It frequently happens among plants, that a single branch or twig 
only is thus blotched in the parent stock, while all the-rest of the 
plant retains its original colour ; and it is well known that if the col- 
oured branch, and'‘that of the natural hue, be both separately propagat- 
ed. they each for the most part retain the colour and qualities of the 
parent branch from which they were taken. 
The diversities in this respect are various. I haye just now ‘in my 
pofsefsion, a plant of the scarlet Lychnis vulgo, ticanis Chalcedonica, 
obtained from seeds, a variety of a white colour. This if propagated 
by slips, preserves its variety ; but at the present time it is in flower, 
and having several stems, one of these has fhowed itself of a red col- 
our, though it is only a branch from a larger stem, all the other flowers 
of which are white. 
