VARIATIONS, DUE TO REVERSION. 87 



features which arise. That it is this idea (viz., that 

 varietal types negative the hypothesis of reversion, 

 because such types were never known in the past), 

 which causes him to urge, that there are variations, 

 not due to reversion, is shown in the following re- 

 marks of his (p. 488, Vol. i, Animals and Plants, &c.) : 



" Many cases of bud-variation, however, cannot be 

 attributed to reversion, but to spontaneous variability 

 (sic), such as so commonly occurs with cultivated 

 plants, when raised from seed. As a single variety 

 of the Chrysanthemum has produced by buds six 

 other varieties, and as one variety of the gooseberry 

 has borne, at the same time, four distinct varieties of 

 fruit, it is scarcely possible to believe that all these 

 variations are reversions to former parents." 



The six varietal types of the Chrysanthemum, are 

 not due to reversion. Nor are the types of the four 

 varieties of the gooseberry. But the positive features 

 which have arisen in the six varieties of the Chrysan- 

 themum, are due to partial reversions to that original 

 perfect type of the Chrysanthemum, which was the 

 sum of all the positive characters of the species. By 

 modifying this original type of the species, it might be 

 possible to obtain a hundred varietal types. What 

 complicates the problem somewhat, is, that these varie- 

 ties are not the result of direct modifications of the 

 original form. But, that original forrn has been re- 

 duced to the degenerated condition in which the plant 

 is, under nature. Then, it is placed under cultivation ; 

 and, because it regains, in different ways, the characters 

 it lost, different varieties or types are formed ; and 



