14 TIIE SCIENCE AND PRACTICE 



latter are among the cultivative i^rocesses by which 

 sorts have been obtained, so should they be repeated 

 in order to ensure a continuance of the induced con- 

 dition. Seeding upon the same soil and in the same 

 bed in which the seed is sown is hardly the way to 

 keep up a form induced by cultivation, as this is 

 exactly what would be done by the plants in a state 

 of wildness. 



In selecting roots for seeding, care should be taken 

 to choose good-shaped examples, in which a clean 

 unbranched bulb, not too large, with a small tap-root 

 and a small top, confined to a single central bud ; a 

 branched root and a many-headed top being true signs 

 of degeneracy. And no less so is neckiness in swedes 

 and mangels, as well as a coarse corrugated skin in 

 roots of all kinds. 



Taking such points as these into consideration, how 

 absurd must appear most of the huge mis-shapen 

 roots to which prizes are usually awarded at shows, 

 where the specimens are chosen for size, and trimmed 

 up with the knife, to make them look more pre- 

 sentable. As an evidence of the mistaken principles 

 upon which prizes are awarded to bundles of roots, 

 let any one seed such examples, and we will venture 

 to assert that such seed would produce a large pro- 

 portion of degenerate examples, without affording so 

 good a crop as would seed, from middle-sized but well- 

 shapen specimens. 



2nd. Some of the forms of roots, and more espe- 

 cially those belonging to the BrassicacecE, such as 

 turnips and swedes, seem to have a wonderful facility 

 for hybridizing ; and this not only to the extent of 

 one sort of turnip with another, but sports may be 



