ADAPTATION OF VARIETIES lOQ 



less complete and accurate definition of what a cer- 

 tain immutable thing really is, but in the case of plants 

 propagated by seed the variety is made up of all the 

 plants which accord with a certain ideal. Bailey says, 

 "Of all those which have more points of resemblance 

 than of difference," and a description of the variety 

 is of that ideal which in common practice is not fixed, 

 but may and generally does vary not only with dififer- 

 ent people but from time to time. The only founda- 

 tion for varietal names in plants of this class is an 

 agreement as to the ideal the name shall stand for. 

 Under modern horticultural practice when anyone has 

 been able to secure seed most of which he is reason- 

 ably sure will develop into plants of a distinct type 

 different from that of any sort known to him, he has 

 a distinct variety, so that it is not surprising that we 

 should find that American seedsmen offer tomato seed 

 under more than 300 different names, and those of 

 Europe under more than 200 additional, so that we 

 have more than 500 varietal names, each claiming to 

 stand for a distinct sort. Now it is quite possible — 

 indeed, it is certain — that we might have 500 tomato 

 plants each different in some respect, either of vine, 

 leaf, habit of growth, or character of fruit, from any 

 of the others and that these differences might make 

 plants of one type better suited to certain conditions 

 and uses than any other ; but it is very certain that 

 these 500 names do not stand for such differences. It 

 is doubtless true that a portion — though I think but 

 a small portion — of these different sorts exist simply 

 as a matter of commercial expediency ; but by far a 

 greater part of them exist because one has found that 



