2 HORTICULTURAL MANUAL. 



from seeds, the cut-leaved variety will reproduce the 

 species, but the variety can only be preserved by propa- 

 gating from the buds. 



2. Seed Variation of Cultivated Plants. The cultivated 

 varieties of the fruits and ligneous plants are far more va- 

 riable when grown from seed than those nearer to Nature. 

 In many cases they are, crosses or hybrids and for genera- 

 tions have been planted intermingled with other varieties. 

 If we plant the seeds of the Grimes Golden or Jonathan 

 apples, we get an exceedingly varied lot of seedlings in leaf, 

 bud, habit of growth, and fruit. Some of them will pro- 

 duce no larger nor better fruit than the Siberian crabs, and 

 perhaps no seedling will bear fruit approaching the parents 

 in size or quality. When propagated by budding, grafting, 

 or cuttings of the top or roots, these choice old varieties are 

 reproduced indefinitely with very slight individual varia- 

 tions. While this is the rule with cultivated trees and 

 plants, we find some partial or entire exceptions. As ex- 

 amples, some of the Russian fruits, such as the Duchess 

 apple and the Spate Morello cherry, come near to repro- 

 duction from seed, and the same is true of some peaches. 



Among garden vegetables we have many varieties that 

 have been so fixed by selection, and growing in isolated 

 position, that they reproduce the variety very nearly true 

 from seed, indefinitely, if kept apart from other varieties of 

 the same species. 



3. Commercial Seeds. It has been said with much 

 show of truth that the Americans are not gatherers of the 

 seeds of native ligneous trees and plants, while in Europe 

 seed-growing and seed-gathering is a business in which the 

 peasant and his children are helpers. 



In the United States growers of vegetable- and some 

 flower-seeds supply the home market largely, and to some 

 extent consignments are sent abroad. 



