The Fact and Philosophy of Variation 11 



suffer; in fact, the remaining branches usually profit 

 by the removal, a fact which shows that there is a competi- 

 tion, or struggle for existence, between the different 

 branches or elements of the plant. The whole theory and 

 practice of pruning rests upon the fact of the individual 

 unlikenesses of the branches ; and the unlikenesses are of 

 the same kind and often of the same degree as those that 

 exist between different plants grown from seeds. 



Bud-variation and bud-varieties. The branches of a 

 Crawford peach tree, for example, differ amongst them- 

 selves in size, shape, vigor, productiveness, and season 

 of maturity, much the same as any two or more separate 

 Crawford trees, or any number of trees of other varieties, 

 differ the one from the others. If any one of these 

 branches or buds is removed and is grown into an inde- 

 pendent tree, a person could not tell if he were ignorant 

 of its history whether this tree were derived from a 

 branch or a seed. This proves that there is no essential 

 unlikeness between branches and independent plants, ex- 

 cept the mere accident that one grows upon another branch 

 or plant whilst the other grows in the ground. But the 

 branch may be severed and grown in the ground, and the 

 seedling may be pulled up and grafted on the tree, and no 

 one can distinguish the different origins of the two. And 

 then, as a matter of fact, a very large proportion of our culti- 

 vated plants are not distinct plants at all, in the sense of 

 being different creations from seeds, but are simply the 

 result of the division of branches of one original plant or 

 branch. All the fruit trees of any one variety are obtained 

 from the dividing up and multiplication of the branches of 

 the first or original tree. 



