382 THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNLIKE. [XXIV. 



fictitious or unstable characters, in which case further 

 variation or running out may be expected. 



Note (May 12, 1896).— On page 380 1 have said that the presumption is that 

 bud-propagated plants tend to wear out sooner than seed -propagated plants, 

 because the latter are generally cross-bred, and cross-breeding is known to 

 increase the virility of offspring. The reader may derive a very erroneous 

 impression from this statement. I mean to say that inasmuch as bud-propa- 

 gated plants are less variable than seed-propagated plants, they may be less 

 able to adapt themselves quickly to changing conditions, and may therefore 

 tend to perish; but it is evident, on the other hand, that so long as such varie- 

 ties do remain they are comparatively true to type, whilst the seed-propagated 

 varieties, from the very fact that they are variable, tend more quickly to vary 

 into new and unrecognizable forms, or to run out. Tlie reader must not hold 

 the common notion that bud-propagation is in-breeding, for it is nothing of 

 the kind. It is simply the division and multiplication of one individual plant 

 (see Essay III.), and all the bud-progeny may be exjwcted to behave very like 

 the parent individual so long as they are subjected to the same conditions. 



This erroneous conception of in-breeding might be obtained even from the 

 most admirable paper of Gray, to which I refer. He writes: "When Mr. Dar- 

 win announced that the principle of cross-fertilization between the individuals 

 of a species is the plan of nature, and is practically so universal that it fairly 

 sustains his inference that no hermaphrodite species continually self-fertilized 

 would continue to exist, he made it clear to all who apprehend and receive the 

 principle, that a series of plants propagated by buds only must have a weaker 

 hold of life than a series reproduced by seed. The former is the closest kind 

 of breeding." There may be two interpretations of this extract. If it is meant 

 that crosses Ibetween plants which were propagated from buds from one plant 

 (as fruit varieties are), are presumably weaker tlian cros.ses between plants which 

 have sprung from seeds, then I assent to the statement. But if it is meant, as 

 is obviously intended, that bud-propagation is close-breeding in contradiction to 

 seed-propagation, then I dissent. Bud-propagation is not ne<-essarily breeding 

 at all. The comparison of in-breeding (or close-breeding) with cross-breeding 

 must be made between the offspring of close-fertilization and the offspring of 

 cross-fertilization, and not of such unlike members as seeds and buds. 



II. 



Are the Varieties of Orchard Fruits Running Out f * 

 Two years ago I presented before this society a 



'Read before the Western New York Horticultural Society, January 26, 

 1893. Printed in the Proceedings of the Thirty-eighth Annual Meeting, pp. 81 

 to 85. 



