322 Ever-sporting Varieties 



varieties, about the middle of the last century, 

 in the nursery of Messrs. Vilmorin, and prob- 

 ably it will remain so as long as popular taste 

 supports its cultivation. It has never been ob- 

 served to transgress its limits to sjDort into 

 varieties without reversions or sports. It fluc- 

 tuates from one extreme to the other yearly, al- 

 ways recurring in the following year, or even in 

 the same summer, by single buds. Highly va- 

 riable within its limits, it is absolutely constant 

 or permanent, when considered as a definite 

 group. 



Similar cases occur not rarely among culti- 

 vated plants. In the wild state they seem to 

 be wholly wanting. Neither are they met with 

 as occasional anomalies nor as distinct varie- 

 ties. On the contrary, many garden-flowers 

 that are colored in the species, and besides this 

 have a white or yellow variety, have also 

 striped sorts. The oldest instance is probably 

 the marvel of Peru, Mirabilis Jalappa, which 

 already had more than one striped variety at 

 the time of its introduction from Peru into the 

 European gardens, about the beginning of the 

 seventeenth century. Stocks, liver-leaf {He- 

 patica), dame's violet (Hesperis), Sweet Wil- 

 liam (DiantJius barb at us), and periwinkles 

 {Vinca minor) seem to be in the same condition, 

 as their striped varieties were already quoted 



