XIV.] VARIATIONS PROM CUTTINGS. 263 



But these or similar variations in cuttings are the 

 commonest experiences of gardeners. Whilst some 

 philosophers are contending that all variation comes 

 through sexual union, the gardener has proof day by 

 day that it is not so. In fact, he does not stop to 

 consider the difference between seedlings and bud- 

 plants in his efforts to improve a type, for he knows 

 by experience that he is able to modify his plants in 

 an equal degree, whatever the origin of the plants may 

 have been. Very many of our best domestic plants 

 are selections from plants which are always grown 

 from cuttings or other asexual parts. A fruit-grower 

 asked me to inspect a new blackberry which he had 

 raised. "What is its parentage I " Tasked. "Simply 

 a selection from an extra good plant of Snyder," he 

 answered ; that is, selection by means of suckers, not 

 by seedlings. The variety was clearly distinct from 

 Snyder, whereupon I named it for him. The Snyder 

 plants were originally all equal, all divisions, in fact, 

 of one plant, but because of change of soil or some 

 other condition, some of the plants varied, and one 

 of them, at least, is now the parent of a new variety. 



But even Mr. Weismann would agree to all this, 

 only he would add that these variations are of no use 

 to the next generation, because he assumes that they 



merest sprouts on the surface of the ground, and it was evident that most of it 

 could not much longer survive the darkness and dryness of tlie clover forest. The 

 medick, although sadly reduced in numbers, was making the most of its opiwr- 

 tunities. The plants had found a foothold near the borders of the place and had 

 insinuated their wiry branches into the available places in the tangle. The single 

 pigweed had got its head through the forest, and was in good spirits. I suspect 

 that it must have had many fellows, which had been smothered in the scuflBe. 

 New adventurers — the sow-thistle and the alsike clover — had been attracted to 

 the spot, and the purslane, needing more sun, had given up the fight. So the 

 merry war goes on ; and all the time all the contestants are becoming unlike. 



