VI.] DOMINANT TYPES ARE ELASTIC. 175 



grained, with uniform bright coloring, in northern New 

 England and Canada, coarse-grained and splashy -striped 

 on the Plains, and oblong on the Pacific slope. For all 

 practical purposes, the Baldwin is a distinct variety in 

 each great geographical apple region of the country ; 

 and if one is to grow it he should secure trees which are 

 propagated from the type which has developed in his 

 own area. 



We are always thinking that the evolution of culti- 

 vated plants takes place by fits and starts, but the better 

 part of it proceeds from the gradual unfolding of one 

 variety into another, the present arising from the past 

 under the invariable impulse of a fundamental law of 

 adaptation. Consider, for a moment, that nearly every 

 species of fruit has its one leading variety, — the Bald- 

 win amongst apples, Crawford amongst peaches, Bart- 

 lett amongst pears, Concord amongst grapes, Wil- 

 son amongst strawberries. These types have sufficient 

 elasticity of constitution to enable them to adapt them- 

 selves to many conditions. They are plastic, progressive 

 varieties ; and even though many other varieties have 

 superior merits in quality or other attributes, they can- 

 not displace those of cosmopolitan adaptabilities. There 

 are probably other varieties in each of these classes of 

 fruits which possess equal elasticity, but these leading 

 forms have got the start, and are thereby difficult of 

 dislodgment. Taken altogether, the Wilson is evidently 

 still the most popular strawberry in the north. It is 

 strange that, amongst all the new varieties, there are 

 none which are able to supplant it. It is probable, 

 however, that the variety which we now grow as the 

 Wilson is not identical with the original stock. It would 

 be strange if it were so. In hundreds of generations 



