OF BOOT CULTIVATION. 



CHAPTER II. 



ON THE ORIGIN OP SORTS OF ROOTS. 



As crop plants are derived from wild ones, as the 

 effect of cultivation, it follows as a matter of course 

 that these will he varied, hoth in form and constitu- 

 tion, according to the circumstances under which 

 they have heen produced. Thus we may expect that 

 any attempts to ennohle a wild root in different 

 countries would not, even if successful, he sure to 

 hring ahout the same results. Much depends even 

 upon the individual root with which our trial may 

 he started, and more upon the judgment employed in 

 selecting the stock from which the experiments are to 

 he continued. 



That position and soil may make a great difference 

 may he inferred from the fact that the attempts to 

 improve the wild parsnip and carrot have met with 

 varied success. De Candolle is reported to have tried 

 to improve the carrot with success, whilst with the 

 parsnip he utterly failed ; whilst Professor Lindley, in 

 Morton's "Cyclopaedia of Agriculture," tells us that 

 M. Ponsard has ascertained that " the wild parsnip 

 hecomes improved immediately when cultivated, and 

 that experiments in improving its quality promise 

 well :" how well, indeed, may he seen from the fore- 

 going chapter. But still, we utterly failed with the 

 wild carrot. Having collected seeds of the Daucus 

 Carota (the common wild carrot) from some fine spe- 



