THE GENESEE FARMER. 



65 



is little less important than the most direct. Of 

 this kind an example is before us. 



A few years ago, among a crop of white Broc- 

 coli, believed to have been the sort called Snow's 

 White, a very valuable, firm, single-headed race, 

 there appeared an individual with a branching stem 

 and a multitude of lateral sprouts, each producing 

 a Broccoli in its own center, as well as the usual one 

 at top of the stem, It was a true branching 

 Broccoli, of tlie same class as the purple branch- 

 ing, which has of late obtained so liigh a repu- 

 tation, but is of better quality, and white. So 

 remarkable a plant could not be overlooked; 

 seed of it was saved and sown : the seedlings 

 were hke the parent; more seed was saved, 

 and the seedlings still came true. For four 

 successive years has this been done, and the 

 annexed representation of an individual of 

 the present season, and tlierefore of the fourth 

 generation, engraved from a x^hotograph^ will 

 show what the new race has become. 



Its quality is, we understand, unexceptiona- 

 ble ; its importance as a cropper is manifest, 

 and experience has shown that its habit is 

 fixed. To gardeners it therefore promises to 

 become a treasure. 



But this wliite sprouting Broccoli has an in- 

 terest of another kind, showing as it does a 

 plain tendency to assume a form that connects 

 'the Broccoli with the wild Cabbage. The 

 nearest approach among cultivated Cabbages 

 to the wild form is to be found in the Thous- 

 and-headed and the Colewort, with their allies. 

 "What is called Cottager's Kale is evidently 

 the same thing with a more vigorous and pro- 

 ductive constitution. • Then Brussels Sprouts 

 are merely Kale with the lateral shoots turn- 

 ed in after the manner of Cabbages. In the 

 example before us, we have a Brussels Sprout 

 with all the end slioots and all the laterals form- 

 ing Broccoh. This teaches us that the wild 

 Cabbage has a natural tendency to form solid 

 hearts, like Cabbages, and stunted succulent 

 flowering branches, like Cauliflowers, and that 

 all the forms of Cabbage known to us are the - 

 result of a more or less complex manifestion of 

 those tendencies. This may be stated as follows: 



1. All the liids active and open. Flowers loose 

 and perfect. Tlie wild Cabbage, Kale, etc. 



2. All the buds active and closed. Flowers loose 

 and perfect. Brussels Sprouts, etc. 



3. The terminal bud alone active and closed. 

 Flowers loose and perfect. Cabbages, Savoys, etc. 



4. The terminal bud alone active and open. 

 Flowers abortive., in succulent heads. Broccoli and 

 Cauliflower. 



5. All the buds active and open. Flowers abor- 

 tive in succulent heads. Sprouting Broccoli. 



Hence it follows that Brussels Sprouts are 1 with 

 the peculiarity of 2, and that in the case before us 

 we have a race with the tendencies of 1 and 4. com- 

 bined. Of the causes that may have originally led 

 to the appearance of these peculiarities we are 

 profoundly ignorant. Nothing, however, more 

 strongly than this Broccoli, supports Mr. Daewin's 

 views of the inheritance of peculiarities. " The 

 laws governing inheritance," says this able natu- 

 ralist, " are quite unknown. No one can say why 

 the same peculiarity in different individuals of the 



same species, and in individuals of difi"erent species, 

 is sometimes inherited and sometimes not so." 

 " But the number and diversity of inheritable de- 

 viations of structure, both those of slight and those 

 of considerable physiological importance, is end- 

 less." Probably the case before us adds another 

 to the instances known to the learned author of the 

 Origin of Species. — London Gardener'^s Chronicle, 



THE FUCHSIA, OR LADIES' EAE DROP. 



"With most people, this is a favorite plant; and, 

 when fashioned as in the above cut, we venture. to 

 say will lose none of its attractions. The mode of 

 propagating and training is well understood. In the 

 fall, take cuttings from the old plants, previous to 

 throwing them away, and plant them into well 

 drained, small sized pots filled with sand and loam- 

 filling a pot of a sort, and place them in a close frame 

 until rooted, when they should be potted oflf sepa- 

 rately into No. 1 pots, and kept in that size pot until . 

 side shoots make their appearance, when they may 

 be shifted into a size larger pot, with loose, rich 

 earth— rich it must be, as the object is to have a very 

 strong and rapid growth. They must be frequently 

 shifted into larger pots until the eleven-inch size is 

 attained, when that ought to suffice for a plant of any 

 reasonable proportions. The side branches to be 

 pinched again and again, until we have a compact, 

 bushy plant, when they may be sutfered to grow 

 and flower at random. james craib. 



