PRESEEVATION OF RACES BY SEED. 297 



more like its parent than any other form of the 

 species. Suppose, for example, the seed of a Eibston 

 Pippin apple were sown ; if untainted by intermixture 

 with other varieties, it would produce an apple tree 

 whose fruit would be large, sweet, and agreeable to 

 eat, and net small, sour, and uneatable, like the 

 Wilding Apple or Crab. The object of the gardener 

 is to fix this tendency, and he does it by means not 

 unlike those employed in the preservation of the races 

 of domesticated animals, namely, by " breeding in and 

 in," as the phrase is. An example of this will be more 

 instructive than a dissertation. The Eadish has, when 

 wild, a long pallid root ; among many seedlings one 

 was remarked with roots shorter and rounder, and 

 more succulent than the remainder; this was a " sport" 

 to which all plants are subject. Had that Eadish 

 been left among its companions, and the seed saved 

 from them all indifferently, the tendency would have 

 disappeared for that time ; but its companions were 

 all eradicated, and the better one produced its seed in 

 solitude. The crop of young plants produced from 

 this Eadish was, for the most part, composed of indi- 

 viduals of the wild form, but several preserved the 

 same qualities as the parent, and some, perhaps 

 one only, in a higher degree : in this one, then, the 

 tendency was beginning to fix. Again were all 

 eradicated, except the last-mentioned individual, 

 whose seeds were carefully preserved for the succeed- 

 ing crop ; and, by a constant repetition of this prac- 

 tice for many years, at last the habit to produce a. 

 round and succulent root became so fixed, that all the 

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