XXIV. 



REFLECTIONS UPON THE LONGEVITY 

 OF VARIETIES.' 



I. 



Bo Varieties Bun Outf 



Few questions have occasioned more discussion 

 than this, and few have been so imperfectly an- 

 swered. At the present time there are the most 

 diverse opinions concerning it, but with a strong 

 trend towards the negative side. And yet the af- 

 firmative of the question admits of the most pos- 

 itive demonstration. 



It is first of all necessary to define our proposi- 

 tions, and we shall then see immediately that two 

 or three separate questions have been mixed up in 

 this discussion. By "running out" is meant the dis- 

 appearance of the characteristics of any variety. It 

 does not mean that the line of succession, the 

 series of generations, has actually become extinct, 

 but that the sum of attributes by which we are able 

 to identify the group of individuals has become so 

 modified that we no longer recognize it. Running 



»The reader should also conswlt Essay V., page 138. 



"Read before Western New York Horticultural Society, .lanuary 29, 1891. 

 Printed in Proceedings of Thirty-sixth Annual Meeting, pp. 86-89; also, in 

 Garden and Forest iv. 58. 



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