THE PLANT 63 



but a piece of one plant only; while a seed comes from 

 the parts of two plants. 



You will understand this fully if you read carefully 

 Sects. XIV, XV, and XVI. Since the seed is made of 

 two plants, the plant that springs from a seed is much 

 more likely to differ from its mother plant, that is, from 

 the plant that produces the seed, than is a plant produced 

 merely by buds. In some cases plants " come true to 

 seed " very accurately. In others they vary greatly. For 

 example, when we plant the seed of wheat, turnips, rye, 

 onions, tomatoes, tobacco, or cotton, we get plants that are 

 in most respects like the parent plant. On the other 

 hand, the seed of a Crawford peach, or a Baldwin apple, 

 or a Bartlett pear will not produce plants like its parent, 

 but will rather resemble its wild ancestors of years ago. 

 These seedlings, thus taking after their ancestors, are 

 always far inferior to our present cultivated forms. In 

 such cases seeding is not practicable, and we must resort 

 to bud propagation of one sort or another. 



While, in a few plants like those just mentioned, the seed 

 does not " come true," most plants, as for example cotton, 

 tobacco, and others, do "come true." When we plant 

 King cotton, we may expect to raise King cotton. There 

 will, however, be some or even considerable variation in 

 the field, as every one knows. Some plants even in exactly 

 the same soil will be better than the average, and some will 

 be poorer. Now we see this variation in the plants of our 

 field, and we believe that the plant will be in the main like 

 its parent. What should we learn from this? Surely that 

 if we wish to produce sturdy, healthy, productive plants we 

 must go into our field and pick out just such plants to 



