BURBANK'S HORTICULTURAL NOVELTIES 183 



by seed, the available range of variability is much larger. 

 Such is, among the larger crops, the case of potatoes. More- 

 over it is the rule for fruit trees, which are multiplied by bud- 

 ding and grafting, and for all the garden plants which are 

 reproduced from bulbs, roots, layers, or cuttings. In these 

 cases, inheritance by seed has manifestly no significance at 

 all, and all kinds of variations, which would disappear or be 

 more or less reduced after sowing, here have the same value 

 as the strictly inheritable characters.* 



In other words, the range of variations is widened if the 

 selection is limited to varieties with vegetative propagation, 

 and restricted when seed varieties have to be produced. It' 

 is difficult to give an idea of the extent of this difference, but 

 it may be stated here that the best estimates lead to the asser- 

 tion that for vegetative varieties selection finds a field thrice 

 as large as for seed varieties. Correspondingly, the ameliora- ; 

 tions may be thrice as important and productive in the former 

 case as in the latter. Hence it is evident that whenever a 

 species can advantageously be multiplied in the vegetative 

 way, its artificial varieties will manifestly excel those of ordin- 

 ary seed plants. 



The most simple case of producing new varieties is to 

 maTte use of ordinary fluctuating variability. By sowing on 

 a large scale, the extremes of this variability will easily be 

 obtained, and they will surpass the average the more, the 

 larger the number of seedlings examined. One or two of the 

 best individuals are chosen and the rest destroyed. The 

 chosen samples then become the origin of a new variety which 

 will remain constant as long as it is propagated only in the 

 vegetative way. As a first instance, I choose the loquat or 

 Japanese quince (Eryobothrya japonica). This species has 

 small yellow fruit of an acid taste, almost filled with the 

 large seed, which is covered with only a thin layer of fruit 

 flesh. But it has a peculiar flavor found in no other fruit. 



