70 THE PHYSICAL KINSHIP 



prairies. The cultivated varieties of viburnum 

 and hydrangea have showy corymbs of infertile 

 flowers only, but the wild forms from which the 

 domestic varieties have been derived have only 

 a single marginal row of showy infertile flowers 

 surrounding a mass of inconspicuous fertile flowers. 

 It has been due to their efforts to please men that 

 bananas, pineapples, and oranges have got into 

 the habit of neglecting to produce seeds. There 

 are certain species of grapes that are seedless, 

 also seedless sugar-cane, and a seedless apple has 

 just been announced by horticulturists. The 

 development of domesticated plants is only in its 

 infancy, and it is probably impossible even for the 

 most agile imagination to dream of the miracles 

 the horticulturist is destined to work in the ages 

 to come. There is every reason to believe that 

 seedless varieties of all our common fruits will 

 ultimately be produced, and that in size, flavour, 

 nutrient constituents, and appearance, they will be 

 developed into forms utterly different from exist- 

 ing varieties. Just within the last few years the 

 U.S. Department of Agriculture has developed a 

 cotton-plant immune to the bacterial diseases 

 of the soil, which had completely driven the 

 cotton-raising industry out of large districts of the 

 South. The cultivation of many of the cereals 

 has gone on so long, and has proceeded so far, 

 that their origin is lost in antiquity. 



Whether or not it is possible for new varieties 

 and species to be evolved is a question, therefore, 

 which does not need to depend for reply wholly 



