368 THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNLIKE. [XXIII. 



of the benches of our forcing houses. It proved to 

 be the best forcing or winter tomato which I have 

 ever seen, and of a new type. I was proud of it and 

 named it. Seedlings and cuttings were raised from it 

 and set in the field, but none of the offspring seemed 

 to present any decided merits. Many of them were 

 entirely unlike the parent, even in the color of the 

 fruit. Yet this plant stood in an isolated position, 

 where the seeds could not have been crossed. In fact, 

 the cutting -plants varied much more widely from the 

 original than the seedlings did. In 1889 and 1890 I 

 sent out a new tomato under the name of Ignotum. 

 By careful selection we have kept this variety very 

 close to its original characters ; yet from seeds of 

 Ignotum, from fifteen seedsmen last year, eight lots 

 failed to produce a single typical Ignotum plant. 

 Varieties of tomatoes are notably unstable, so much 

 so that a variety rarely persists in its original char- 

 acters for more than ten years unless extra care is 

 exercised to keep it true. This instability is true to 

 a greater or less extent of all varieties which are 

 propagated by means of seeds. But it is sometimes 

 true of fruits as well, which are propagated by buds 

 or divisions of the plant. A young cherry tree stood 

 in an English garden. The fruit was so indifferent 

 that the owner was about to destroy the tree, but his 

 little daughter had become attached to the tree, and 

 pleaded for its life. The tree was left, and the fruit 

 began to improve. The mature tree gave an excellent 

 fruit, which is now known as the Black Eagle. All 

 fruit growers or nurserymen of wide experience know 

 that the first fruit of a plant is not to be accepted as 

 a reliable indication of the permanent character of the 



