4 PRODUCTION OF NEW VARIETIES. 



make further departures from the original form. It is true that 

 all or most of its seedlings will still retain a likeness to the pa- 

 rent, but a few will differ in some respects, and it is by seizing 

 upon those which show symptoms of variation, that the improver 

 of vegetable races founds his hopes. 



We have said that it is a part of the character of a species 

 to produce the same from seed. This characteristic is retained 

 even where the sport, (as gardeners term it) into numberless 

 varieties is greatest. Thus, to return to cherries, the Kentish or 

 common pie-cherry is one species, and the small black mazzard 

 another, and although a great number of varieties of each of 

 these species have been produced, yet there is always the like- 

 ness of the species retained. From the first we may have the 

 large and rich Mayduke, and from the last the sweet and lus- 

 cious Black-Hearts ; but a glance will show us that the duke 

 cherries retain the distinct dark foliage, and, in the fruit, some- 

 thing of the same flavor, shape and color of the original spe- 

 cies ; and the heart cherries the broad leaves and lofty growth 

 of the mazzard. So too, the currant and gooseberry are differ- 

 ent species of the same genus ; but though the English goose- 

 berry growers have raised thousands of new varieties of this 

 fruit, and shown them as large as hen's eggs, and of every va- 

 riety of form and color, yet their efforts with the gooseberry have 

 not produced any thing resembling the common currant. 



Why do not varieties produce the same from seed ? Why 

 if we plant the stone of a Green Gage plum, will it not always 

 produce a Green Gage ? This is often a puzzling question to 

 the practical gardener, while his every day experience forces 

 him to assent to the fact. 



We are not sure that the vegetable physiologists will under- 

 take to answer this query fully. But in the mean time we can 

 throw some light, on the subject. 



It will be remembered that our garden varieties of fruits are 

 not natural forms. They are the artificial productions of our 

 culture. They have always a tendency to improve, but they 

 have also another and a stronger tendency to return to a natural, 

 or wild state. " There can be no doubt," says Dr. Lindley, 

 " that if the arts of cultivation were abandoned for only a few 

 years, all the annual varieties of plants in our gardens would 

 disappear and be replaced by a few original wild forms." Be- 

 tween these two tendencies, therefore, the one derived from na- 

 ture, and the other impressed by culture, it is easily seen how 

 little likely is the progeny of varieties always to reappear in 

 the same form. 



Again, our American farmers, who raise a number of kinds 

 of Indian corn, very well know that, if they wish to keep the 

 sorts distinct, they must grow them in different fields. Without 

 this precaution they find on planting the seeds produced on the 



