VABIETIES FROM SEED. 83 



CHAPTER XV. 



WHAT VARIETIES COME TRUE FROM SEED ? 



An intelligent correspondent asks the question given 

 above. He queries still farther, and says : " An apple-seed 

 produces an apple-tree, but a Baldwin apple-seed will not 

 produce a Baldwin apple-tree. Wheat of any variety 

 produces the same ; seed of a scarlet variety of Verbena 

 will not always produce its like. Why this anomaly ? " 

 The " why " of the matter can not be told, but a few 

 general rules may be useful. Seeds of plants in the wild 

 state, in their native habitats, almost invariably produce a 

 progeny nearly identical with the parent ; and many 

 species, even after they have been subjected to long years 

 of cultivation, never appear to change seemingly in the 

 slightest degree. Other species under cultivation quickly 

 develop varieties entirely different from the original, and 

 become what is technically termed " broken." Thus the 

 original species of our well-known Verbena is indigenous 

 to South America, having a comparatively small scarlet 

 flower. From this, and probably some other species 

 hybridized with it, we have the gorgeous and varied col- 

 oring of the variety of to-day. But it took many years 

 to produce these, for \ve can well remember in our early 

 gardening days there was no white, and the furor that 

 took place in the floricultural world Avhen Verbena 

 teucrioides, the first white, appeared. It was far from 

 being an attractive plant, but the color was novel, and 

 single plants were sold by the florists of that time at a 

 price that would now buy a hundred. The Verbena, then, 

 is one genus whose species have given us innumerable 

 varieties. The Chrysanthemum, Dahlin, Fuchsia, Ger- 

 anium, Pansy, Petunia, the Rose, and many others, are 

 also familiar examples where the original species has 



