646 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
Of these, the specimens are found growing 
wild in 
Some of the rarest and 
choicest, however, have been found as isolated 
“ sports,” and through such “sports” and their 
combination by hybridizing, we are indebted for 
a good r of the most valuable forms, 
sies, Auricu las , Spontaneous “ sports 
all of them In thes 
parent plant, branches resulting which bear 
leaves, flowers, and fruits of highly modified 
character, and permitting of propagation by 
cuttings, or even seed, though that is rarely to 
be depended upon in such cases, A red 
for instance, has sent up a sucker bearing pure 
white Roses ; and this being severed for propa- 
gating purposes, another bud from same points 
gave a stripe Ordinary dwarf bushes 
have produced long rambling climbing branches, 
plain Roses have yielded Moss Roses, the double 
pink e 3 a branch of intense 
double a Peach tree forty years 
old has eile fous into its head to bear a 
crop of Nectarines, In such cases as these, we 
—4 obviously something far more striking to 
deal with than than 
ate s 
formulated to = er for the phenomena; all 
we kno e subtle change takes place 
in the bud which grira hitherto unknown 
characters in it and its progeny, and usually 
establishes these permanen tly. 
The field of natural science is so immense and 
inexhaustible, that the normal forms of life 
monopolise almost entirely the research of the 
scientist, and there is far. too great a tendency 
to stigmatise the abnormalities as mere “ mon- 
strosities.” We are, however, convinced that 
in the long history ‘of evolution, the “ sports,” 
or “ special creations ” 
as the slow moulding of changing environment, 
er “sports” have doubtless occurred, 
ped to be destroyed because the environment 
as antagonistic; but some have certainly been 
in the right direction, and who shall say that 
ngly-marked individuals with such prepotent 
powers as existed in the otter-ram and Niata 
cattle might not be capable, i in @ very short time, 
1 previous normal t 
; given, there- 
nd favourable modification of the 
ering race might arise and 
flourish, and call itself Homo when the time 
came, 
In fine, grant that Nature can and does act 
occasionally per saltum, and our search for 
missing links is at an end, 
* * * * * * * 
Since writing the foregoing, my attention has 
August last, in which it is assumed that such a 
suddenly modified breed as I have indicated, 
could not continue in existence unless the ex- 
tremely unlikely contingency arose of both a 
similarly-modified male and female originating 
simultaneously and meeting at maturity. It 
ars to me, however, that such prepotency, as 
prt ae occurs in males, and did indeed 
occur in the curious Niata and other breeds of 
cattle ai sheep, destroys this objection entirely, 
by doing away with need for a similarly- 
varied partner. If the 1 of the male is 
strong enough to obliterate the normal female 
ype in the offspring altogether, the second 
generation may yield not only males and females 
of the pure modified type, but these may be the 
progeny of various females, the evil effects of 
constant in-breeding being thus eliminated. 
That no record exists of such cases having been 
followed up, is no argument against their pos- 
sibility, while in the vegetable kingdom a good 
parallel case of the establishment of an abnor- 
mal form, and consequent ousting of the normal, 
has come under the writer’s personal notice, and 
was duly recorded several years ago. 
There is a long stone-wall in Dartmoor, a few 
miles from Holne Chase, which for many yards 
was, and probably is, densely covered with a 
abnormal caudate depauperate form of 
Asplenium adiantum nigrum, Both ends of the 
wall are covered with normal plants of that 
species, but in the m 
could not d 
abnormal form can not only hold its own, but 
has some advantage over the normal, which 
enables it to oust it, The abnormal type i is quite 
found nowhere ie and as thi 
species creeping rhizome which would 
enable a singh individual to spre 
the wall, we must assume that a single “ sport ” 
oocurred, the spores of which yielded a large 
number of individuals of same type which 
gradually dispossessed the normal, and took its 
l This, be it observed, has occurred 
entirely under natural Cane, and “Williogs 
the interference of the “ breeder,” who, in the 
address before us, is considered essential to the 
perpetuation of any suddenly originating ab- 
normal type, h a case as this, which is 
quite open to verification, demonstrates at any 
rate the possibility of new forms becoming per- 
manent types by natural selection only, a very 
wide difference thus suddenly originating which 
would demand an immense period of time, were 
the slow and imperceptible changes of ordinary 
natural selection alone in question. Chas, T, 
Druery, F. L. S. 
A BRIGHT CHURCHYARD. 
T is pleasing as we pass to and fro to meet with 
a well-kept churchyard, such as it was 2. privilege 
to come across the other day h, an 
ee ee place in Worcestershire, about seven 
seesi rom Evesham and six from any railway 
"ie t only was it adorned with bright and 
3 bee, N well- grown Conifers and the 
traditional ancient Yew, beneath the shadows of 
which 
“ The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.” 
b 
day that I walked through the 
village (May 2) it was one glowing mass of Talips, 
all in the fos agin sarc of perfection, 
impossible to pass along without 
— ta e enjoy y iba rich repast for the eye that 
been so generoual there for the enjoyment 
of everyone who visits the precincts of the sacred 
place. Amongst the Tulipe I 5 aa E 
sorts as Keizerskroon, La Candeur 
and others, all useful 5 spring b a 
as are calculated to pro te es bedding, . 
full of foliage, and feathered down to the 
each side the church-door were two Thuia ans. 
Biota orientalis lutea or aurea, clothed ne 
of golden-yellow, of fine 
perfect in contour. 
and of the same height and shape, 
the grass closely zee Quintin Read, 
SCOTLAND. 
epi E AND THE FROST, 
r was the most severe known by 
the ‘let inhabitant in Stirlingshire, and there 
bei w at any time during the $ 
(Strawberries among them) h 
At a large pp of the Ayrshire gardeners, moh 
of them had a woefal tale to tell regarding tet | 
weather — 5 
I put no litter or protection of any kind over ot 
among my Strawberry-plants, thinking that 0t 
vouri 
John Ruskin and Black Prince have on 
British Quaeen, and varieties raised 
excellent ee have suffered somewhat. 
Stra n pots for ke m 
Ures than — did here this season. 
dreds of the earliest varieties, viz., 
Biack Prince, in order to have ripe 
of the month of February, 
throughout; but President, 
Thury, Garibaldi, and Duke of 
in fine ashes to the rims of the pots 
fruit at 
