CULTIVATED PLANTS 163 



be found on the outskirts of our woods, once more 

 bristling with long sharp thorns and bearing under- 

 sized and extremely unpalatable fruit. Under like 

 conditions the plum-tree and the cherry-tree will bear 

 nothing but stones covered with a sour skin. In 

 short, all the riches of our orchards will in similar 

 circumstances undergo such deterioration as to be 

 worthless to us. 



"This reversion to the wild state occurs even 

 under cultivation and in spite of efforts to prevent it 

 when seed is used for propagating the plant. Sup- 

 pose the seeds from an excellent pear are put into 

 the ground. Well, the trees that spring from those 

 seeds will bear for the most part only mediocre or 

 poor, even very poor, pears. Another planting is 

 made with the pits of the second generation, and the 

 result shows still further decline. Thus if the ex- 

 periment is continued with seeds taken each time 

 from the immediately preceding generation, the 

 fruit, becoming smaller and smaller, bitterer and 

 harder, will at last return to the sorry wild pear of 

 the thicket. 



"One more example. "What flower equals the rose 

 in nobleness of carriage, in perfume and brilliant 

 coloring? Suppose we plant the seeds of this superb 

 flower ; its descendants will turn out to be miserable 

 bushes, nothing but wild roses like those of our 

 hedges. But we need not be surprised at this. The 

 noble plant had the wild rose for ancestor, and in 

 trying to propagate it by its seed we have simply 

 caused it to resume its native characteristics. 



