64 



THE GEKESEE FARMER. 



WHITE SPEOtTTING BROCCOLI. 



"WHITE SPROUTING BROCCOLI. 



WnATEVER nncertaiiity may exist concerning the 

 origin of domesticated animals, tliere is far less 

 obscurity in the case of cultivated plants, the wild 

 states of which, if not jjositively known, are at 

 least ascertainable with great probability. We 

 know that esculent Carrots come from the wild 

 Carrot in a few generations, because that has been 

 proved experimentally; and we also know, because 

 experience teaches us, that the esculent quality 

 once produced in a Carrot becomes fixed and capa- 

 ble of descent by inheritauce. We also know that 

 Nectarines liave sprung from Peaches, because we 

 see them api)earing occasionally upon trees whose 

 fruit is for the most part Peach. We know that 

 some of the breeds of the garden Chrysanthemums 

 must have come from the common old purple Chry- 

 santhemum, because the first change that took place 

 in England was from it to a buff color, from which 

 by degrees many of the newer forms have been 

 obtained in this country. And if we have not the 

 same absolute certainty as regards other domesti- 



cated plants, we are at least furnished with the 

 mears of reasoning fairly from the known to the 

 unknown. 



In no case has greater donbt been entertained 

 than in what concerns the many races of Cabbages, 

 whose habits liave become so fixed, and descent by 

 inheritance so perfect, tliat cultivators cannot be- 

 lieve that "they have all come from one conmion 

 stock, in the lapse of time, and that stock tlie wild 

 Cabbage that springs up liard, bitter, and uneata- 

 ble, on the coast of Devonshire and Cornwall. Nor 

 can it be denied that a good deal of ex])erience in 

 the mutation of form is i]ece?»sary to jiroduce tlie 

 conviction that Savoys, Coleworts, and Cauliflow- 

 ers, are descendants of some common parent. No 

 one has seen the wild Cabbage close its leaves 

 and form its solid lieart ; still less have its strag- 

 gling flowering branches been seen to become soft, 

 stunted, and blended together into the granular, 

 delicate ball, called a Broccoli or Cauliflower. But 

 although such positive evidence has not been ac- 

 quired, yet it happens that every now and then a 

 piece of presumptive evidence is obtained, wMch 



