260 



AGRONOMY 



breeding is found in the seeds, however. Iy repeated sow- 

 ings of great numbers of seeds one will ultimately secure the 

 material necessary for a start and can then breed from it. 



The common cut-leaved maple 

 was not found until a million 

 maple seeds had been sown. 

 and it is said that a bushel 

 of apple seeds were sown 

 before that desirable form, the 

 wealthy apple, was secured. 

 The weeping mulberry was an 

 accidental seedling that sprung 

 into being fully developed, and 

 the Lombardy poplar is re- 

 garded as a sport from the Eu- 

 ropean black poplar. In the 

 more permanent plants, such 

 as shrubs and trees, variations 

 occur which are often confined 

 to a single branch or a single cluster of flowers. These are 

 called bud variations. Good illustrations may 

 be found in the nectarine, which is regarded 

 as a bud variation of the peach, and in the 

 seedless navel orange, which has been derived 

 in the same way from the seeded orange. It 

 is probable that variations from the normal 

 are much more frequent in nature than we 

 suspect, and the fact that they seldom persist 

 is no proof that they do not occur. In the bine flower with 

 nature of things the plants of a region are P arts t u ed to 

 better adapted to that region than any other 

 set would be, and are thus able to hold the ground and crowd 

 out any different forms that might arise. If, as may occasion- 

 ally happen, the new form is better fitted to the locality than 



FIG. 189. A nasturtium sport, show- 

 ing the parts of the flower turned 

 to leaves 



FIG. 100. Colum- 



