No. 4.] GARDEN SEEDS. 41 



interchange the variation. The conditions are radically dif- 

 ferent in the case of varieties propagated by seed here instead 

 of multiple parts of a single individual with identical poten- 

 tialities and limitations of development; we have different 

 individuals, each with distinct though possibly practically 

 identical tendencies and limitations, and because of this simi- 

 larity we throw them together as a garden variety; but it is 

 evident that in order to do this we should first have a very 

 clear and distinct idea of the exact type of the plants which 

 shall be so thrown together, and since the varietal name by 

 which the plant is known is determined by its adherence to 

 this ideal, the ideal may quite properly be called the variety. 

 In cultivated plants which are propagated by seed we decide 

 whether any individual plant shall be classed with any va- 

 riety, not from its origin as with plants propagated by divi- 

 sion, but by its character. If from a pod produced on a 

 typical plant of American Wonder pea we take 1 seeds, G of 

 which develop into plants of the exact American Wonder 

 type, while the seventh developed into a tall plant like a 

 Champion of England, we cannot properly regard this last 

 as a seed of American Wonder, though it was produced by 

 an American Wonder plant. 



The ideal which any varietal name stands for may and 

 often does vary with different people, — often vary materi- 

 ally; while practically the same type is often known by dif- 

 ferent names, and there is always a tendency to change with 

 time. The Hubbard squash of to-day is very different from 

 that of fifty years ago, and we can only guess what that of 

 fifty years hence will be. These conditions have resulted in 

 a multiplication of varietal names, and a great lack of uni- 

 formity as to the exact type which these names stand for, as 

 well as a great want of uniformity of type in the seed sold 

 under the same varietal name. 



In Bulletin No. 109, Bureau of Plant Industry, United 

 States Department of Agriculture, we have a record of a 

 critical test and study of garden, beans bought from Ameri- 

 can seedsmen under 502 distinct names; but the author con- 

 siders that there was among them only 164 really distinct 

 varieties or types, and of these many were so nearly alike 



