392 The Transformation of Plants. 



tendency to sport still more. Of that tendency he availed 

 himself with admirable patience. Year by year the change 

 went on — ^but slowly. Little by little one part altered or 

 another. The wretched, himgry grain grew plumper ; the 

 flour in it increased; its size augmented. The starved ears 

 soon formed other spikelets ; the spikelets at first containing 

 but two flowers, at last became capable of yielding four or 

 five. The straw stiffened, the leaves widened, the ears 

 lengthened, the corn softened and augmented, till at last 

 wheat itself stood revealed, and of such quality that it was 

 not excelled on the neighboring farms. All this too, be it 

 observed, was done on a large scale ; it was no obscure lab- 

 oratory experiment, but the result of a farming operation, 

 carried on in the open fields. Men must be blind indeed 

 Avho cannot see to what this points. We shall leave our 

 agricultural friends to reflect upon the prospects that are 

 opened to them ; it is for them to double the length of their 

 e£irs of corn, and augment their grain — to go on, in short, in 

 crowds, in the track that a few only of the most intelligent 

 are following now. We must limit our horizon to the boun- 

 dary of a garden. 



If any men know the importance of " sports," they are 

 gardeners. Half the most striking of the flowers and fruit 

 have been thus obtained. A poor ugly dwarf larkspur sports 

 by chance to double ; the seeds of the sport are saved care- 

 fully and sown; three-fourths of the seedlings are single, 

 but a few are double ; the first are thrown away, the best of 

 the second are saved for seed, and the second crop of seed- 

 lings comes truer. So comes the race of double larkspurs. 

 A double larkspur next sports to a stripe, that is to say, bands 

 of red or of violet appear upon the pale ground of the petals 

 of a few flowers ; these flowers are marked, the seed is 

 saved, and so begins the breed of what are called Uniques, at 

 one time the pride of the flower garden, though now dis- 

 carded for newer favorite.*!. In the same way, first came 

 camellias, chrysanthemums, and a host of others. The old 

 purple chrysanthemum accidentally sported to buff": the buff 

 branch was struck, proved true to its new nature, and became 



