72 MARKET GARDEKlXa. 



ferent characters, as kale, when the terminal and lateral 

 leaf buds are active and open ; as Brussels sprouts, when 

 each leaf bud forms a head ; as cabbage, when the ter- 

 minal leaf bud alone is active, forming one head ; as 

 cauliflower, when the terminal flower bud is checked, 

 producing a mass of succulent, edible, and, to a large 

 extent, abortive flowers. 



The occasional appearance of the so-called pod corn, 

 otherwise primitive corn, developing among cultivated 

 species, may be the result of heredity, as it is quite pos- 

 sible the original maize was of this character, every 

 grain being covered by a distinct husk. But it is in the 

 *' melon family" that the greatest variations occur; pos- 

 sibly there are four thousand varieties known, compris- 

 ing great variability in size, form and color of vine, 

 and color, shape and size of fruit and form of seed, one 

 variety being two thousand times larger than another. 

 Nearly all of this family will interbreed ; the canteloupe 

 and cucumber have been hj'bridized on Bloomsdale 

 Farm and grown there for several years as an interest- 

 freak of nature. 



While heredity is a well marked principle in vege- 

 table life, there is a constant tendency to depart from 

 established forms, sometimes for the better, oftener for 

 the worse, for reversion is generally downward in the 

 scale of excellence. The reversion may be in the form 

 of a wild sport, or a distinct reproduction from a late or 

 a very remote ancestor. 



Every ex])erienced seed grower knows that the 

 purest crops will sometimes develop the wildest sports, for 

 instance, a crop of cabbage of apparently absolute purity 

 may produce a few plants like collards, the result alone 

 of reversion. The seed grower is powerless to prevent 

 this natural physiological freak, and the gardener who 

 knows anything of seed production and vegetable varia- 

 bility deals more rationally with the seedsman than he 



