Chai. XII. INHEKITANCE. 4()1 



cai^acity in the individual : thus Vilmorin ^' raised from a 

 peculiarl}^ coloui-ed balsam some seedlings, which all resembled 

 tlieir parent ; but of these seedlings some failed to tiaiisniit 

 the new character, whilst others transmitted it to all their 

 descendants during several successive generations. So again 

 with a variet}' of the rose, two plants alone out of six were 

 found by Vilmorin to be capable of transmitting the desired 

 character; numerous analogous cases could be given. 



The weeping or pendulous growth of trees is strongly inherited 

 in some cases, and, without any assignable reason, feel)ly in other 

 cases. I have selected this character as an instance of capricious 

 inheritance, because it is certainly not proper to tlie parent- species, 

 and because, both sexes being borne on the same tree, both tend to 

 transmit the same character. Even supposing that there may have 

 been in some instances crossing with adjoining trees of the same 

 species, it is not probable that all the seedlings would have been 

 thus affected. At Moccas Court there is a famous weeping oak ; 

 many of its branches " are 30 feet long, and no tliicker in any part 

 of this lengtli than a common rope :" this tree transmits its weeping 

 character, in a greater or less degree, to all its seedlings ; some of 

 the young oaks being so flexible that they have to be supported by 

 props; others not showing the weeping tendency till about twenty 

 years old.^* Mr. Eivers fertilized, as he informs me, the flowers of 

 a new Belgian weeping thorn (Cratceytis oxyamntha) with pollen 

 from a crimson not- weeping variety, and three young trees, " now 

 six or seven years old, show a decided tendency to be pendulous, 

 but as yet ai"e not so much so as the mother-plant." According to 

 Mr. MacNab,"^ seedlings from a magnificent weeping birch {Bttnla 

 alba), in the Botanic Garden at Edinburgh, grew for the first ten or 

 fifteen years upright, but then all became weepers like their parent. 

 A peach with pendulous branches, hke those of the weeping willow, 

 lias been found capable of propagation by seed.^" Lastly, a weeping 

 or rather a prostrate yew {Taxus htccata) was found in a hedge in 

 Shropshire ; it was a male, but one branch bore female flowers, and 

 produced berries ; these, being sown, produced seventeen trees all 

 of which had exactly the same peculiar habit with the parent- 

 tree." 



These facts, it might have been thought, would liave been sufiicient 



^' Verlot, 'La Product, des Variii- similar statement in ' Proc. Nat. of 



tes.' 1865, p. 32. Philadelphia,' IbTi. p. 235. 



^* Loudon's ' Gard. Mag.,' vol. xii., ■" Kev. W. A. Leighton, ' Flora of 



1836, p, 368. Shropshire.' p. 497 ; and Charles- 



'" Veilot, 'La Product, des Varie- worth's 'Mag. of Nat. Hist.,' vol. i., 



tes,' 1865, p. 94. 1837, p. 30. I possess prostrate trees 



■" Bronn's 'Geschi^hte der Natur,' produced from these seeds, 

 b. ii. s. 121. Mr. Meehan makes a 



