NEW VARIETIES. 225 



at least it will transmit those advantageous characteristics 

 which enabled it to live during its days of famine, and in 

 many cases these characteristics will be intensified. It is 

 thus that drouth-resisting, and even alkali-resisting, plants 

 have been developed. 



Climate and soil are, however, by no means the only agents 

 which Nature employs in securing selections. The earliest 

 shoots may escape the slugs, and thus an early variety of 

 some plant may have its beginning. The most honeyed flow- 

 ers may attract the largest number of bees, and so be ensured 

 a better prospect of propagation. Indeed, it may be said that 

 literally in a thousand ways Nature proceeds constantly to 

 perform this work. She exposes her plants continually not 

 only to the direct competition of other plants of the same kind, 

 but of many kinds. They are subject also to the ravages of 

 their own particular diseases, and to destruction by animals. 

 If an exact likeness always characterized all the individuals 

 of a species then we could only ascribe to blind chance the 

 fact that some survive while millions perish. But they are 

 not alike. Some are hardier, some stronger ; one has a longer 

 or more efficient root, enabling it to get water where its fel- 

 low has failed ; another has a rougher leaf and a tougher 

 fiber, causing it to be spared where its fellow has been de- 

 voured. The slightest difference among plants may mean 

 the difference between life and death, and it is this fact that 

 enables Nature to continue her selections. Upon those com- 

 paratively rare occasions when a sport or a monstrosity ap- 

 pears Nature may, by the perpetuation in the offspring of 

 the remarkable characteristics of the parent plant, seem to 

 work rapidly in the production of distinct varieties, or even 

 of species, but these are not her normal modes of action. 



