The Transformation of Plants. 393 



the ancestor of a race of other buffs. The color of a red 

 camellia ''breaks;" red streaks appear in the flowers of a 

 sporting branch ; that branch is separated from its more tran- 

 quil mother, and clapped upon a stout stock ; on goes the 

 sportive branch, retains its tendency, produces striped flowers 

 all the better for the new blood infused into them, and the 

 tendency is fixed ; skilful gardeners cut it limb from limb, 

 and every mutilated morsel starts into life another varie- 

 gation. 



It is the same with vegetables ; a wild carrot accidentally 

 found in cultivated ground, refuses to run to seed, but em- 

 ploys itself in buflding up a root stouter than any carrot had 

 before. The watchful eyes of a gardener remark the change ; 

 the changeling, still a sport, flowers at last ; its precious seeds 

 are saved, and committed to still richer ground. Nine-tenths 

 of the seedlings run back to the wild form — your carrot is 

 but an intractable gentleman after all — but a very few prove 

 obedient to the will of man, shake off" their savage habits, 

 refuse to flower till the second year, meantime spend their 

 autumn and winter in the further enlargement of their roots, 

 then rise up into blossom invigorated by six months' addi- 

 tional preparation, and yield more seeds, in which the fixity 

 of character, or if you will the habit of domestication, is 

 still more firmly implanted. And thus begins the race of 

 carrots. 



Nectarines, pears, peaches, plums, and other valuable 

 fruits, must be supposed to have in numerous instances de- 

 rived their origin from similar circumstances ; they were far 

 more the children of accident than design, and we see to 

 what they have come. 



Gardeners, then, should keep a watchful eye upon every 

 tendency to sport, which they may remark among the plants 

 entrusted to their care. The sports, however unpromising, 

 should be made the subject of repeated experiment; year 

 after year seeds should be saved, seed-beds "rogued,"and 

 attempts made to secure fixity of character. If they end in 

 nothing, as they often will, such experiments have the ad- 

 vantage of also costing nothing ; but if they lead to a good 



VOL. XVIII. NO. IX. 60 



