3o8 CULTIVATED PLANTS AND THEIR ORIGIN 



which enormous odds are against the raiser; nevertheless, the 

 method has more than once led to successful results. 



One of the best varieties of potato ever raised, namely, the 

 Magnum Bonum, was obtained by Mr James Clarke of Christ- 

 church, who found it among a batch of seedlings derived from a 

 promiscuously selected lot of potato ' apples ' ; and many other 

 useful and ornamental varieties of cultivated plants have had a 

 similar haphazard origin. 



In the case of a new form occurring among seedlings of 

 perennials, such as shrubs, fruit-trees, strawberries, potatoes, 

 roses and other plants which can be propagated vegetatively, 

 and also in the cases of those new forms of annual plants whose 

 peculiarities are completely and faithfully transmitted by seeds 

 to all their offspring, the work of the plant-breeder is reduced 

 to the mere propagation of the new variety. 



Most frequently, however, it will be found that on sowing the 

 seeds of a new form or ' sport,' the majority of the seedlings do 

 not inherit the pecuHar features of the parent but resemble the 

 original plants from which the parent ' sported.' For example, 

 if in a batch of tomato plants bearing wrinkled inferior fruit, a 

 single individual were observed with superior smooth round fruit, 

 it would generally be found that a large number of the plants 

 raised from the seeds of such ' seminal sport ' would have 

 wrinkled fruit and none at all or only a few would bear smooth 

 fruit. When a new variety makes its appearance among crops 

 propagated by seeds, it is generally necessary not only to simply 

 grow it, but to take steps to 'fix' the variety, so that all the 

 seedlings raised from it or from its descendants shall exhibit the 

 peculiar characters which make it worth the special attention of 

 the grower. To ' fix ' and establish a new variety with constant 

 characters from such ' seminal sports,' can only be attained by 

 the following process of continued selection. 



The seeds of the plant showing the new features are sown, 

 and those individuals of the offspring possessing the same 



