How Domestic Varieties Originate 



269 



tion has proceeded under our eyes and within the period 

 when plants have been under close scrutiny. 



These various examples are but types of what has 

 been and can be accomplished in a given group of plants. 

 There is nothing mysterious 

 about the subject, so far as 

 the cultivator is concerned. 

 He simply sets his ideal, makes 

 sure that it does not contra- 

 dict any of the fundamental 

 laws of development of the 

 plant with which he is to work, 

 then patiently and persistently 

 keeps at his task. He must 

 have good judgment, skill, and 

 inspiration, but he does not 

 need genius. 



"In the improvement of 

 plants," writes Henri L. de 

 Vilmorin, "the action of man, 

 much like influences which act in the wild state, only 

 brings about slow and gradual changes, often scarcely 

 noticeable at first. But if the efforts towards the de- 

 sired end be kept on steadily, the changes will soon be- 

 come greater and greater, and the last stages of the 

 improvement will become much more rapid than the 

 first ones." 



FIG. 79. Reflexed type. 



