410 BUD-VAEIATION Chap. XI. 



exception of a few cases incidentally noticed of varying suckers in 

 the rose, pelargonium, and chrysanthemum. I will now give a few 

 instances of variation in svibterranean buds, that is, by suckers, 

 tubers, and bullis; not tiiat there is any essential difference between 

 buds above and beneath the ground. Mr. Salter informs me that 

 two variegated varieties of Phlox originated as suckers; but I 

 should not have thought these worth mentioning, had not Blr. Salter 

 found, after repeated trials, that he could not propagate tliem liy 

 " root-joints," whereas, the variegated Tussiluf/o farfara can thus be 

 safely propagated ;™ but this latter plant may have originated as a 

 variegated seedling, which would account for its greater fixedness 

 of character. The Barberry (Berbcrin v>il(/aris) offers an analogous 

 case; there is a well-known variety with seedless fruit, which can 

 be propagated by cuttings or layers; but suckers always revert to 

 the common form, which produces fruit containing seeds.''' My 

 father repeatedly tried this experiment, and always with the 

 same result. I may here mention that maize and wheat some- 

 times i^roduce new varieties from the stock or root, as does the 

 sugar-cane.^^ 



Turning now to tubers : in the common Potato (Solanum tuherosum) 

 a single bud or eye sometimes varies and produces a new variety ; 

 or, occasionally, and this is a much more remarkable circumstance, 

 all the eyes in a tubor vary in the same manner and at the same 

 time, so that the whole tuber assumes a new character. For instance, 

 a single eye in a tuber of the old Forty-fold potato, which is a purple 

 variety, was observed''^ to become white; this eye was cut out and 

 planted sepai'ately, and the kind has since been largely propagated. 

 Kemp's potato is properly white, but a plant in Lancashire produced 

 two tubers which were red, and two which were white; the red 



'" M. Lemoine (quoted in ' Gard. Ribbon cane has here " sported into a 



Chron.,' 1867, p. 74) has lately ob- perfectly green cane and a perfectly red 



served that the Symphj'tum with cane from the same head. I verified this 



variegated leaves cannot be jirojia- myself, and saw at least '2()0 instances 



gated by division of the roots. He in the same plantation, and the fact 



also found that out of 500 plants of a has completely upset all our pre- 



Phlox with striped flowers, which conceived ideas of the difference ot 



had been propagated by root-division, colour being permanent. The con- 



onlv seven or eight produced striped version of a striped cane into a 



flowers. See also, on striped Pe- green cane was not uncommon, but 



.argoniums, ' Gard. Chron.,* 1867, the change into a red cane univer- 



p. 1000. sally disbelieved, and that both events 



^' Anderson's ' Recreations in Agri- should occur in the same plant 



culture,' vol. v. p. 152. incredible. I find, however, in 



'- For wheat, see ' Improvement of Fleischman's ' Report on Sugar Ciilti- 



the Cereals,' by P. Shirreff, 1873, p. vation in Louisiana for 1848, by the 



47. For maize and sugar-cane, American Patent Office, the circum- 



Carriere, ibid., pp. 40, 42. With stance is mentioned, but he says hfl 



respect to the sugar-cane, Mr. J. never saw it himself." 



Caldwell, of Mauritius, says (' Gar- "^ 'Gard. Chron.,' 1857, p. 662. 

 dener's Chronicle,' 1874, p. 316) '.he 



