74: THE GKAPE CULTUEI8T. 



that they have a hybrid variety, when it is only a variation 

 produced by natural causes. 



If we have a number of fruits which reproduce them 

 selves without variation, it is not positive proof that they 

 are distinct species. But it only goes to show that th* 1 

 natural forces of the plants are perfectly balanced. 



We see this principle fully illustrated in the different 

 breeds of cattle, sheep, etc., which are descendants of an 

 original species, but are now divided into breeds, as they 

 are termed, each of which perpetuates its distinctive features 

 unless some disturbing cause is allowed to interfere and 

 destroy the established character. 



The case is very similar with plants, for we often possess 

 varieties that have all their functions so fixed and balanced 

 that they reproduce themselves from seed, generation after 

 generation, if noi disturbed by being brought into close 

 contact with other and different varieties of the same 

 species, or by a too great change of soil, culture, or 

 climate. But when there has been a disturbance of these 

 forces either by hybridizing or cultivation, and the func- 

 tions of generation have been disarranged, then variation 

 begins, and it becomes difficult to decide whether hybrid- 

 izing may or may not have produced this change. 



Suppose we fertilize the Isabella grape with the Sweet 

 Water and the result is a white variety, would the simple 

 fact of its being white be a proof that hybridizing had 

 been accomplished ? No, not at all, for there have been plenty 

 of white varieties raised from the seed of the Isabella 

 without its being brought in contact with any white kind. 



I fruited several seedlings of the Isabella the past season, 

 and two of them gave fruit that in appearance were exact 

 types of the Delaware, yet the vine from which the seeds 

 were gathered to produce these seedlings was not within 

 twenty miles of a fruiting Delaware ; but had I fertilized 

 an Isabella with the pollen from the Delaware and pro 

 duced. such fruit as the result, it would have been pro 



