428 



The Living Plant 



Bananas, Pineapples have been immensely enlarged, greatly im- 

 proved in flavor, and actually rendered seedless. Brilliantly red 

 foliage plants, including some trees, have been derived from 

 green forbears. Invaluable vegetables, often imposing in size, 

 have been made to spring from insignificant weeds, as in case of 

 the familiar varieties represented in the accompanying picture 



Fio. 175. Representative forms of Cabbage, Kohl-rabi, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, 

 and Tree Cabbage, evolved by man from the wild shore plant, Brassica oleracea, of 

 which two forms are shown in the upper left hand corner. The pictures are about 

 one twenty-fourth of the natural size. (Redrawn from a colored wall-chart by Laurent 

 and Errera.) 



(figure 175). Not one of these remarkable productions, or any of 

 the vast number of which they are typical, would exist to-day, 

 were it not for the craft and the patience of man. It is now our 

 particular task to inquire in exactly what way this indubitable 

 miracle has been wrought. 



The methods of plant improvement are few, old, simple, and 



