464 SIMILITUDE RETAINED BY SEEDLINGS. 



the species, yet there is always a visible tendency in it to 

 produce a seedling 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 not 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 Radish 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 Radish 

 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 

 obtained from this Radish was, for the most part, composed of 

 individuals 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 succeeding crop ; 

 and, by a constant repetition of this practice for many years, at 

 last the habit to produce a round and succulent root became so 

 fixed, that all the Radishes assumed the same appearance and 

 quality, and there were none left to draft or " rogue." Every 

 variety of annual crop, not still in its wild state, must have 

 gone through this process of fixing ; and thus the varieties of 

 earliness, lateness, and productiveness, colour, form, and 

 flavour observable in garden plants, have been secured for our 

 enjoyment. 



The following experiment tas teen recorded by an intelligent 

 observer writing under tlie name of Lusor: — "If we breed live stock, 

 of whatever kind, we invariably select the parents from the best of our 

 flock or stud. So, with regard to flowers, no one would sow seed from 



