The Plant's Response 



original stock. Nay, farther ; a variety with abnormally 

 developed stem becomes kohl-rabi, and if the thickening 

 be low down and form a subterranean stem or bulbous 

 root we have a form of turnip. 



The fact is, the whole vegetable garden is a marvelous 

 response to man's solicitation in the world of herbaceous 

 plants. Tomatoes have come up into their present al- 

 most universal popularity within the memory of men 

 still living, and there are other plants whose response to 

 human effort has been scarcely less astonishing. The 

 navel orange is a curious illustration of the abandonment 

 with which plants yield themselves to man's control. 

 Here is a fruit which has absolutely given up its power 

 of producing seed, its whole claim on the future, its 

 perpetuity, at the bidding of the artful gardener. Bot- 

 anists have long been familiar with what they denomin- 

 ate proliferation, the repetition of a flower beyond itself, 

 of a flower which should otherwise terminate the stem, 

 as the rose. Now the navel orange is, it seems, a case of 

 proliferation; the first orange blossom did not check the 

 twig, but the carpels of the first-formed flower carry up 

 the axis to form a second smaller blossom and this makes 

 in turn, in the top of the large perfected fruit, the second 

 little orange whereat the world has wondered! All be- 

 cause luxurious man dislikes a fruit with seeds! The 

 navel orange has entrusted its whole destiny to man : he 

 may carry it along by budding ; the tree makes no effort 

 more to perpetuate itself. It has foregone the power of 

 forming seeds. 



But man's selective agency goes farther still; it reach- 

 es even the world of microscopic plants, and has nurtured 



