310 Ever-sporting Varieties 



One of these doubtful terms is the word sport, 

 It often means bud-variation, while in other 

 cases it conveys the same idea as the old botan- 

 ical term of mutation. But then all sorts of 

 seemingly sudden variations are occasionally 

 designated by the same term by one writer or 

 another, and even accidental anomalies, such as 

 teratological ascidia, are often said to arise by 

 sports. 



If we compare all these different conceptions, 

 we will find that their most general feature is 

 the suddenness and the rarity of the phenom- 

 enon. They convey the idea of something un- 

 expected, something not always or not regularly 

 occurring. But even this demarcation is not 

 universal, and there are processes that are reg- 

 ularly repeated and nevertheless are called 

 sports. These at least should be designated by 

 another name. 



In order to avoid confusion as far as possible, 

 with the least change in existing terminology, 

 I shall use the term " ever-sporting varieties " 

 for such forms as are regularly propagated by 

 seed, and of pure and not hybrid origin, but 

 which sport in nearly every generation. The 

 term is a new one, but the facts are for the most 

 part new, and require to be considered in 

 a new light, Its meaning will become clearer 

 at once when the illustrations afforded by 



