14 



GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY. 



monstrosity is in the fruit which results from it 

 and perishes with it. If this alteration be in the 

 ovules, the monstrosity is in the germ, and this 

 germ sown produces a variety which bears only 

 monsters. 



13. Every monstrosity regularly is sterile, 

 either from the nature of the flowers which are 

 without sex, or whose sexual parts become 

 petals, or by the nature of the fruit which has no 

 seeds. It must be multiplied by the graft or slip. 



Corollary I. The species form many branches 

 in the families known as genera and to which 

 they belong by common ties or characteristics; | 

 these are disiinguished from each other by pecu- 

 liar marks or features. 



These features or characteristics are constant, 

 and distinguish the type from the varieties. The 

 types are always fruitful. They are reproduced 

 by their seeds unless these seeds are modified by 

 fecundation. They are also reproduced by the 

 seeds of the varieties. 



Thus the seed-beds offer the surest means of 

 distinguishing the species from the varieties. 



Every tree which is perpetuated by descent 

 and preserves its forms, characteristics, and prop- 

 erties is a type. It can undergo no changes ex- 

 cept by fecundation ; but those changes which 

 are made in the germ do not extend to the re- 

 productive principle. The sexes disappear in 

 these individuals, or pass intact througli the 

 modifications of the flowers and the ovary. They 

 bear in them the principles of the type. Among 

 peaches I have verified three types, the peach, 

 the cling-stone, and the nectarine peach. Among 

 cherries I have verified two, the white-heart 

 cherry, and the round or black cherry. I have 

 data which leads me to suspect that there is a 

 third type. 



I have not yet determined the types of the apri- 

 cot, the apple, or the pear. My experiences are 

 not yet sufficiently advanced respecting these 

 species. I have, however, determined to a cer- 

 tainty that the Citrus has but four species. 



Corollary //.The blending of species in the 

 reunion of the sexes has given rise to hybrids. 



The hybrid partakes of the characteristics of 

 the two species of which it is composed. Thus 

 its exterior physiognomy reveals its origin. It 

 has a tendency to sterility. The hybrid presents 

 phenomena which are very singular. The mix- 

 ture sometimes affects the substance of the vege- 

 table, and we have then a mixed fruit whose 

 forms are constant, but which is generally un- 

 fruitful. Such are the poncire, the double mixed 

 pink, and the double flowered ranunculus. At 

 other times the mixture seems to be, as it were, 

 wandering in the vegetable, and then it affects 

 isolated parts of the plant capriciously, and dis- 

 appears sometimes, to reappear in the products 

 even of those parts which did not seern before 

 to be affected. Such are the orange de bimrrerie, 

 the violet orange, and the variable-flowered pink. 

 In these cases the fruits affected are sterile, or 

 semi-sterile, and the fruits not affected produce 

 seeds. 



Cwollary III Varieties. The mixture and 

 proportion of the reproductive principles of sev- 

 erarindividuals of the same species have given 

 rise to varieties. Varieties are only aberrations 

 or departures from the type. They are of two 

 sorts : Varieties from excess, and varieties from 



deficiency. Varieties from excess are due to a 

 superabundance of the masculine part, and still 

 more to the mixture of the pollen of several 

 flowers. Varieties from deficiency are due to 

 the lack of proportion between the sexes, or the 

 weakness of the masculine part. They are also 

 sometimes due to a defective organization of the 

 ovary. Varieties from excess most frequently 

 tend to sterility. They are marked by a striking 

 thrift and a lack of thorns. Their seeds, when 

 they have any, reproduce the type, unless a 

 foreign fecundation has acted upon the flower 

 and formed a new combination. 



Thus, every sterile or semi-sterile fruit is only 

 a variety. Its seed, in the state of nature, will 

 return to the species. It is, therefore, by means of 

 the seed-bed that we are enabled to recognize the 

 species to which varieties belong. Stoutness and 

 the loss of horns always accompany the absence 

 of seeds. It is, therefore, at the expense of the 

 generative parts that vegetables acquire marked 

 development in the leaf, bud, or fruit. Nature 

 seems to have assimilated them to animals which 

 acquire volume and lose the hair when they are 

 barren. Varieties from deficiency deviate from 

 the type for reasons directly opposite to those 

 which cause deviation in varieties from excess. 

 The imperfection of the fecundation affects the 

 germs which bear in their principles a defect of 

 organization. These germs produce only wild 

 plants, as we call them, which are degenerated 

 individuals, whose products are badly organized, 

 and whose seeds are poorly nourished. These 

 seeds, which often perish, still ordinarily gene- 

 rate feeble and languishing plants, but sometimes 

 they give types. 



It is to the accidental vigor of a branch bear- 

 ing well-formed flowers that we owe this return 

 to the species. Thus, varieties by deficiency are 

 due often to climate and culture, but these influ- 

 ences act only indirectly. They facilitate or re- 

 tard the development of individuals, and, conse- 

 quently, the perfection of the reproductive prin- 

 ciples ; but every change is operated in the germ 

 and only as the effect of fecundation. 



Every variety is a monster to nature, and some 

 varieties are so regarded by men, such as the va- 

 rieties from deficiency. But varieties from ex- 

 cess ordinarily form the delight of the table and 

 .the ornament of the garden. Nature aims at only 

 the production of seed, and when fruit bears 

 many seeds, it is perfect in the system of Nature. 



Man seeks only pleasure in Nature, and hence 

 judges differently of vegetable productions, on 

 account of the advantage to be derived from their 

 use. He, therefore, prefers, in certain fruits, 

 those varieties whose pericarp is more developed, 

 tender, and juicy. He is thus opposed to Nature, 

 as in the case of the apple, pear, and peach. In 

 other fruits he prizes the cotyledons or seeds, and 

 regards the pericarp as useless, the more so in 

 proportion to its development ; and in this he 

 approaches the plan of Nature, as in the almond, 

 chestnut, the bean, and the pea. 



Others still are prized for a portion of the peri- 

 carp, and a variety is considered choice only 

 when this part is developed at the expense of^ 

 the pulp, as in the melon and citron. Other 

 fruits are valued for the pulp only, as the lemon 

 and orange. There are also vegetables in which 

 the flower alone is esteemed, and then that va- 



