446 Ever-sporting Varieties 



strike us as something unnatural. The rela- 

 tion between cause and effect, is in truth other 

 than it might seem to be at first view, but nev- 

 ertheless it exists, and is of the highest impor- 

 tance. 



From this same conclusion we may further 

 deduce some explanation of the hereditary 

 races characterized by monstrosities. It is 

 quite evident that the twisted teasels are in- 

 adequate for the struggle with their tall con- 

 geners, or with the surrounding plants. Hence 

 the conclusion that a pure and exclusively 

 twisted race would soon die out. The fact that 

 such races are not in existence finds its expla- 

 nation in this circumstance, and therefore it 

 does not prove the impossibility or even the im- 

 probability that some time a pure twisted race 

 might arise. If chance should put such an ac- 

 cidental race in the hands of an experimenter, 

 it could be protected and preserved, and hav- 

 ing no straight atavistic branches, but being 

 twisted in all its organs, might yield the most 

 curious conceivable monstrosity, surpassing 

 even the celebrated dwarf twisted shrubs of 

 Japanese horticulturists. 



Such varieties, however, do not exist at pres- 

 ent. The ordinary twisted races on the other 

 hand, are found in the wild state and have only 

 to be isolated and cultivated to yield large num- 



