ON EXTREME VARIATION 



Now all your disappointment and discourage- 

 ment of the first day is forgotten. Now your en- 

 thusiasm is reanimated and accentuated. From 

 this time forward you carry on the experiment 

 with renewed zeal, and you feel confident at last 

 that the coveted goal is within sight. 



PLANTS THAT TEND TO VARY 



Of course there are other plants that give en- 

 couragement from the very outset. Such is the 

 case with almost any of the familiar cultivated 

 plants, of which there are many species and varie- 

 ties that have long been given attention by the 

 horticulturist. 



Suppose, for example, that you were to plant 

 all the seeds taken from the seed pods of a single 

 dahlia. Perhaps you have done this on occasion, 

 not with any thought of making new experiments 

 or developing a new variety, but merely in the 

 hope of reproducing the characteristics of the best 

 and most beautiful dahlia among the number in 

 your garden. In that case you have doubtless been 

 subjected to bitter disappointment. For when the 

 carefully nurtured seedlings came finally to bloom- 

 ing time, instead of presenting flowers closely sim- 

 ilar to those of the parent form, they have shown, 

 in all probability, the widest range of variation 

 not one of them perhaps has been closely similar 

 to the parent. Nor, perhaps, were any two pre- 



[17] 



