2 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



on, through many generations, till the fine color, 

 or sweet taste, or great size, he has been working 

 towards, becomes perfected. Then these improved 

 plants can be multiplied by grafts, buds, or cuttings, 

 which usually transmit the exact qualities of the 

 parent, until the variety is well established. 

 The seedlings of a plant have a tendency to inherit 

 the characteristics of the parents, and also to vary 

 somewhat. By selecting, through a long series of 

 generations, individuals tending towards a certain 

 desired character, and allowing the less desirable 

 to perish, distinct varieties are produced. In this, 

 man has unconsciously followed the process of 

 Nature herself, who through long ages has been 

 improving her work by suffering her weaker and 

 poorer children to perish, through their lack of 

 power to compete with those better suited to their 

 surroundings. The latter survive and hand down 

 their qualities to their offspring, whose descend- 

 ants in their turn, best adapted to take advantage 

 of their opportunities, usurp the room, which is 

 not wide enough for all. 



With animals the process is the same. The 

 wonderful speed of the trotter, the pointing of 

 the hunting-dog, the direct flight of the carrier- 

 pigeon towards home, are all instincts that have 



