June 18, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



941 



branches, and rather loose flower panicles. 

 The wild plant evidently varies readily 

 under cultivation, for several varieties have 

 appeared that are perpetuated true from 

 seed. But no gardener who sows his cocks- 

 comb seeds expects all or even the majority 

 to revert to the wild ancestor, though some 

 may more or less perfectly at times. The 

 suggested presence of a fungus that may 

 stimulate to fasciation requires ample con- 

 firmation before the view can be accepted. 



(7) Cultivated plants. Hitherto indica- 

 tions of characters having been acquired 

 have been drawn almost entirely from 

 the vdld state, but we must frankly 

 acknowledge that the cases have been 

 few where these characters have been 

 proved to be directly inherited. In cul- 

 tivated plants we have the strongest pos- 

 sible evidence. At the start let me em- 

 phasize the well known fact that the wild 

 type of many of our cultivated plants 

 is unknown. Wheat, oats, barley, corn, the 

 banana, peach, gourd and vegetable marrow 

 are descendants of wild plants that we are 

 still looking for. 



Man in his cultural operations has been 

 practicing artificial selection along three 

 lines. He has aimed, first, at a heavy re- 

 turn from individuals, none of which will 

 require special care as individuals, and 

 such we call agricultural crops; second, to 

 obtain a rich fruit supply from individuals 

 that need more detailed attention, and 

 these we commonly call fruit crops; third, 

 to develop a race of showy or handsome 

 decorative plants. The first and second 

 operations have been proceeding for thous- 

 ands of years, and accordingly we find that 

 the species operated on are those whose 

 wild state we know least about. Be it 

 noted here, however, that artificial selection 

 is very difierent in its results from the 

 rigorous and impartial selection that works 

 its course in nature. In the latter case 

 those forms survive that are balanced to, or 



that rise superior to, their environment. In 

 the former man steps in, selects not those 

 types that are hardiest, and in general 

 features fittest for life's battle, but those 

 only which show variations that please him. 

 Such may be the very opposite of desirable 

 in a struggle alongside other plants, or 

 amid such physical conditions as the plant 

 might avei-agely be exposed to. No wonder 

 then that when man steps out and leaves 

 to their fate the new species that he has 

 evolved, Nature steps in and makes ' short 

 shrift ' of them. 



Here let me say that many of our most 

 keenly debated biological questions will be 

 largely settled for us in the near future by 

 a diligent study of horticultural and agri- 

 cultural literature, which, though at times 

 loose, hazy and lacking in exact detail, 

 brings us nearer to the subjects of variation 

 and heredity than does much of our botan- 

 ical literature. The use that Darwin, Mas- 

 ters, Henslow and Bailey have made of it 

 we all know. 



It is impossible in so vast a field to do 

 more than refer to one or two cases. At 

 the World's Fair Horticultural Congress 

 M. de Vilmorin read a paper that in some 

 points settles for us our position in the pres- 

 ent debate. Selecting one of the most un- 

 likely of European weeds, the wild Chervil 

 (^Anthriscus sylvestris), he sowed seeds of it 

 in a selected situation, " in order," says he, 

 " to change its slender and much-forked 

 roots into fleshy, straight and clean roots, 

 say like those of the parsnip. Among the 

 first batch of roots raised from wild seeds a 

 dozen were selected with a tendency in 

 their roots to larger and straighter bodies. 

 Each root was planted separately, and its 

 seed harvested separately . Of the dozen lots 

 obtained, 8 or 9 were discarded at once, 

 and roots were selected only in such lots 

 as exhibited some trace of variation. Again 

 a dozen roots were chosen, a drawing made 

 of each root, which was afterwards planted 



