94 THE SURVIVAL OP THE UNLIKE. [ll!. 



also add that the breaking up of seminal hybrids into 

 the characters of either parent may take place, as Dar- 

 win has shown, through either seed or bud -variation. 

 You are all no doubt aware that hybrids generally tend 

 to revert to the types from which they sprung, and this 

 sometimes occurs even in hybrid offspring which is 

 propagated exclusively by buds or cuttings. 



Still another proof of the similarity of bud -varieties 

 and seed -varieties is the fact that the seeds of bud- 

 varieties are quite as likely to reproduce the varietj^ as 

 the seeds of seed -varieties are to reproduce their parents. 

 Darwin and others have recorded this seminal trans- 

 mission of bud-sports. "Notwithstanding the sudden 

 production of bud -varieties," Darwin writes, "the 

 characters thus acquired are sometimes capable of trans- 

 mission by seminal reproduction. Mr. Rivers has found 

 that moss-roses [which are bud- varieties] generally re- 

 produce themselves by seed; and the mossy character 

 has been transferred by crossing from one species to 

 another." This general fact, that bud-sports may re- 

 produce many of their essential acquired characters by 

 seeds, is so well grounded in the minds of gardeners that 

 the most critical of them make no distinction, in this 

 respect, between varieties of bud and seed origin when 

 selecting parents for making crosses. 



If we can prove the similarity of bud and seed vari- 

 ations by showing that both bear the same relation to 

 transmission of characters by means of seedage, we can 

 demonstrate it equally well by the converse proposition 

 — that both bear the same relation to the perpetuation 

 of their features by cuttage. Some seed -varieties will 

 not "come true" by cuttings, and there are also some 

 bud -sports which will not, as every gardener of expe- 



