March 15, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



287 



and exceptional chioHy because the sub- 

 ject has received little experimeutal at- 

 tention. Certainly the list given by Focke, 

 and the anatomical researches of Maciar- 

 lane, show that such hybrids may be ex- 

 pected in a wide variety of subjects and 

 with some frequency. It is now stated pos- 

 itively by Daniel, as the result of direct ex- 

 periment, that the seeds of cions of certain 

 cultivated herbs which are grafted upon a 

 wild plant give ofl'spring which show a 

 marked return to the wild type. I should 

 also add that the breaking up of seminal 

 hybrids into the characters of either parent 

 may take place, as Darwin has shown, 

 through either seed- or bud- variation. You 

 are all no doubt aware that hybrids gener- 

 ally tend to revert to the types from which 

 thej- sprung, and this sometimes occurs 

 even in hybrid offspring which is propagated 

 exclusively by buds or cuttings. 



Still another proof of the similarity of 

 bud-varieties and seed-varieties is the fact 

 that the seeds of bud-varieties are quite as 

 likely to reproduce the variety as the seeds 

 of seed-varieties are to reproduce their 

 parents. Darwin and others have recorded 

 this seminal transmission of bud-sports. 

 " Notwithstanding the sudden production 

 of bud-varieties," Darwin writes, '' the char- 

 acters thus acquired are sometimes capable 

 of transmission hy seminal reproduction . 

 Mr. Elvers has found that moss-roses 

 [which are bud-varieties] generallj' repro- 

 duce themselves by seed ; and the mossy 

 character has been transferred by crossing 

 from one species to another." This general 

 fact that bud-sports may reproduce many 

 of their essential acquired characters by 

 seeds is so well grounded in the minds of 

 gardeners that the most critical of them 

 make no distinction, in this respect, be- 

 tween varieties of bud and seed origin when 

 selecting parents for making crosses. And 

 if we can prove the siniilaritj' of bud and 

 seed variations bj' showing that both bear 



the same relation to transmission of char- 

 acters bj' means of seedage, we can demon- 

 strate it equally well Ijy the conver.se pro- 

 position — that Ijoth bear the same relation 

 to the perpetuation of their features by 

 cuttings. Some seed-varieties will not 

 ' come true ' by cuttings, and there are also 

 some bud-sports wliieli will not, as every 

 gardener of experience knows. I will cite 

 a single case of ' sporting ' in bud offspring. 

 One winter a chance tomato plant came up 

 in one of my greenhouses. I let it grow, 

 and it bore fruit quite unlike any other 

 variety which I ever saw. There was no 

 other tomato plant in the house. I propa- 

 gated it both by seeds and cuttings. I 

 had two generations of cuttings. Those 

 taken directly from the parent plant, 

 ' came true ' or verj' nearlj'^ so ; then a lot 

 of cuttings from these cutting-grown plants 

 was taken, making the second asexual gen- 

 eration from the original seedling. While 

 most of the seeds ' came true,' few of these 

 second cuttings did, and, moreover, thej' 

 ' sported ' into several veiy unlike forms — 

 so much unlike that I had both red and 

 yellow fruits from them. In respect to 

 transmission of characters, then, bud- and 

 seed-varieties are alike, because either class 

 may or maj- not transmit its marks either 

 by seeds or buds. 



Finallj', let me say, in proof of the further 

 similaritj" of bud- and seed-variations, that 

 each class follows the incidental laws of 

 external resemblance which pertain to the 

 other class. For instance, there are analo- 

 gous variations in each, giving rise to the 

 same kinds of variegation, the same anoma- 

 lies of cut and colored foliage, of weeping 

 branches, party-colored fi'uits and the like; 

 and the number of similar variations may 

 be as great for any ameliorated plant in the 

 one class as in the other. The most expert 

 observer is not able to distinguish between 

 bud-varieties and seed-varieties ; the only 

 way of distinguishing the two is by means 



