CHAPTER II 

 THE CAUSES OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 



WE have now gone back to the starting-point, to that 

 unit with which nature begins to make her initial differ- 

 ences or individualities ; that is, to the point where varia- 

 tions arise. This point is the bud and the seed, one 

 sexless, or the offspring of one parent ; the other sexual, 

 or the offspring of two parents. Now, inasmuch as the 

 horticultural variety is only a well-marked variation which 

 the gardener has chanced to notice and to propagate, it 

 follows that the only logical method of determining how 

 garden varieties originate is to discover the means by 

 which plants in general vary or differ one from another. 



There is probably no one fact of organic nature concern- 

 ing the origin of which modern philosophers are so much 

 divided as the causes or reasons for the beginnings of 

 variations or differences. It seems to be an inscrutable 

 problem, and it would be useless, therefore, for us to 

 attempt to discover these ultimate forces in the present 

 book. Still, we must give them sufficient thought to 

 enable us to satisfy our minds as to how far these variations 

 may be produced by man; and, in doing this, we must 

 discover at least the underlying philosophy of plant 

 variation. It is the nature of organisms to be unlike 

 their parents and their birthmates. Why? 



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