VARIATION. 69 



to a greater or less extent." He quotes with 

 approval M. de Jonghe, who says that " There 

 is another principle, namely, that the more a 

 type has entered into a state of variation the 

 greater is its tendency to continue doing so; 

 and the more it has varied from the original 

 type the more it is disposed to vary still fur- 

 ther.". What is here said of plants is as far as 

 observed true also of animals, and the poet not 

 only has not exaggerated, but rather under- 

 stated the case, who says: 



"The grapes which dye [our] wine are richer far, 

 Through culture than the wild wealth of the rock ; 

 The suave plum than the savage-tasted drupe; 

 The pastured honey bee drops choicer sweet ; 

 The flowers turn double and the leaves turn flowers; 

 ******** 



The wild flower was the larger [we] have dashed 

 Rose blood upon its petals, pricked its cup's 

 Honey with wine, and driven its seed to fruit, 

 And show a better flower if not so large." 



All variation, of course, is not toward im- 

 provement. It is by selection of those variants 

 which exhibit more desirable qualities than the 

 parent stock and inter-crossing them that these 

 improvements are effected. Variation in a 

 wild state is often retrograde. Seed that has 

 fallen upon an unkindly soil is sure in a few 

 generations to begin to vary for the worse. It 

 is only by the closest watchfulness that man 

 can keep up many of the highly-esteemed, im- 

 proved varieties of animals and plants. In these 



