180 The Origin of Species by Mutation. 



Van Mons expressly stated that he himself had not 

 originated any new forms: "La nature seule cree.''^ He 

 found all the sorts which he cultivated and put on the 

 market, growing as such in the wild state^ and, as it 

 happened, almost all of them in the Ardennes. The wild 

 plants were thorny and their fruits small, tough and 

 woody. As the result of being sown in a garden and 

 under the influence of another climate^ they regularly 

 lose their thorns and the tough consistency of their fruits, 

 which become larger, fleshier and juicier. But the dif- 

 ferences in form, color and taste and other valuable char- 

 acters arose neither in, nor as a result of, cultivation ; they 

 already existed in the wild forms. His new kinds are 

 nothing more nor less than already well-known cultivated 

 forms'* which he has improved in respect of size and 

 juiciness, by selection for two or three generations'* 

 without altering their varietal characters in the very 

 least. ^ Van Mons was fully aware of the independence 

 and constancy of these forms and it should be noted 

 that he speaks of them as subspecies and not as varieties. 



The best way to raise a new type for the market is 

 not to sow the seeds of the best sorts already in culti- 

 vation but those of a fruit which, be it ever so puny, 

 belongs to a hitherto unknown type. 



It seems that most of the new sorts that have been 

 raised by other breeders have arisen in the same way. 

 For example the splendid St. Germain pear owes its ori- 

 gin to a single tree found by chance in the Foret de St. 

 Germain near Paris; Besy de Charnnontel, Bergamotte 

 Sylvanche, and Virgoideuse are also due to a lucky find. 



^ Pomonomie, I, p. 445, *Loc. cit., II, p. 208. 



^Loc. cit., p. 406, 444. ^Loc. cit., p. 462 and II, p. 208. 



^ Loc. cit., p. 410. "" Loc. cit., T, p. 415. 



