VARIETIES. 



are much attended to. Cape Geraniums are raifed, by 

 crofs impregnation, which often excel their parents in fize 

 and beauty, and for a while are continued by cuttings, if 

 not by feed. Nothing, however, can be more tranfitory 

 ithan thefe ephemeral produdlions. We hare adverted to 

 fome of them under the article Pelargonium. Double- 

 flowered varieties are produced from time to time, either by 

 nature or by fome accident of cultivation, for which we 

 Icannot in any manner account. Thus, if we fow an 

 hundred feeds of the common Annual Stock, Che'tranthus 

 annuus, one, or perhaps many, of the plants may bear no- 

 thing but completely double flowers, all the reft being quite 

 fmgle. When fuch a variety occurs in any perennial, or 

 flirubby, fpecies of plant, it is juftly prized, being capable 

 ^of multiplication by cuttings, layers, &c. ; and when varia- 

 itions of colour are fuperadded, as in the favourite Camellia 

 japonica, the treafures of the confervatory are ftill more 

 multiplied. We muft be content, in the prefent ftate of 

 knowledge at leaft, to feize each vegetable Proteus as it 

 ;Comes in our way, without attemptmg to explain, or to imi- 

 Itate, the caufe of its transformation. 



Colour is, of all things, moft liable to vary in the feials 

 ;of flowers. Almoft every blue flower is capable of changing 

 I to white, and it appears that in feveral inftances the feeds of 

 the white variety more generally produce their like, than 

 thofe of the natural-coloured flowers change to white. But 

 this rule is not invariable. The feeds of Canterbury Bells, 

 Campanula Medium, whether taken from a white or blue 

 1 flower, appear, as far as we can judge, to produce a great 

 majority of blue-flowered plants, with a few white ones. 

 I The elegant varieties of the Sweet Pea, Lathyrus odoratus, 

 ; feem more conftant ; but they are comparatively of recent 

 introduftion amongft us, and it is probable they may in time 

 wear out, like other more fhort-lived beauties. 



Varieties in the luxuriance or flavour of annual herbs, or 

 I their feeds, which make the riches of a kitchen garden, re- 

 ; quire, of all things, the moft affiduous attention of a culti- 

 ' vator. Thefe are the moft cafual and fugacious of all things. 

 ! They do, however, appear to be more within the control of 

 I a fkilful gardener, than many above-mentioned ; efpecially 

 with regard to foil, or manure. An eminent London 

 ; feedfman aflured the writer of this, that he found it ex- 

 ' pedient to fend lettuce feed to a remote country, the fouth 

 I of France, for inftance, one feafon, and its produce to 

 Holland, or Germany, perhaps, the next, in order to pre- 

 I ferve or improve its quality. Change of crops every body 

 knows to be eflential in farming, as well as change of feed. 

 ' What are the various degrees of excellence in Wheat, 

 Barley, or other grain, but varieties, in what poflibly, when 

 originally wild, refembled but an ordinary grafs. Thefe 

 excellencies are kept up by culture, that is, by attention to 

 the circumftances juft detailed. Such attention is infinitely 

 more requifite m the cultivation of high-fed, pampered, and 

 dehcate culinary vegetables, which, if at all neglefted, foon 

 return to their original kind, or more frequently vanifh al- 

 together. Varieties of Peas, obtained by crofs impregna- 

 tion, are a late improvement in horticulture, which promifes 

 a more durable fuccefs. For this acquifition to our tables 

 we are indebted to the fltill and indefatigable exertion of 

 Mr. Knight, who has alfo extended his philofophical in- 

 quiries and experiments to Strawberries. It is much to be 

 wiftied that the teft of diftinftion between a variety and a 

 fpecies, which this gentleman has aiTumed, or rather 

 adopted from animal phyfiologifts, may hold good. This 

 is, their power of generating together, without limitation. 

 That unqueftionably diftinft fpecies in the vegetable king- 



dom will, like the horfe and the afs, produce a mule ; and 

 that fuch mules will, for a longer or ftiorter penod, con- 

 tinue to propagate themfelves, as the animal mule is faid 

 occafionally to do, we cannot deny. It is fufficient for tlie 

 prefervation of order in nature, that fuch baftard progenies 

 are limited ; nor have we any doubt that, if they were all 

 diligently watched, their termination, fooner or later, might 

 always be obferved. But we are not the lefs aware of the 

 hazard of drawing conclufions on this fubjeft, without a 

 fufficiently long courfe of obfervation ; analogy, always in 

 philofophy to be followed with caution, being in the prefent 

 cafe peculiarly treacherous. 



In praftical botany, varieties often caufe no fmall trouble. 

 Linnjeus was among the firft who, upon found principles, 

 diftinguifhed them from fpecies. Tournefort, and moft of 

 liis followers, enumerated all the different appearances of 

 plants that fell in their way, without regard to their per- 

 manency, or fpecific diftinftion. Hence a plant with a blue 

 or a white flower ftands, in the works of tliefe authors, as 

 two diffierent fpecies ; though manifeftly the fame in every 

 other charafter, and perhaps produced from feed out of one 

 and the fame capfule. Linnxus blames Micheli for making 

 fixteen fpecies out of the common Dutch Clover. (See 

 Trifolium repens.) Of thefe, fome indeed prove more 

 certainly diftinft fpecies than Linnaeus imagined ; but the 

 reft are, many of them, diftinguifhed by cafual marks, that 

 may or may not exift, in the fame individual plant, the fol- 

 lowing feafon. Some botanifts contend that the red and the 

 white Lychnis Jioica, fo different in colour, muft conftitute 

 two fpecies. We have found the larger kind, which is 

 ufually white, with a pink flower, and thinking we had 

 made a great acquifition, tranfplanted it into a garden. 

 Next year the fame root bore pure white flowers, and no 

 others. All cultivators know how Tulips, Hyacinths, 

 Anemonies, and the garden Ranunculus, differ and vary in 

 colour, from the fame feed, and even on the fame root at 

 different feafons. The fame plant of Hydrangea hortenjis 

 will produce pink or blue flowers according to the time of 

 year, or the manner in which it is treated as to foil and 

 watering. Bog-earth generally induces the blue tint. To 

 multiply inftances of this fort, would lead us beyond all 

 bounds. 



Pubefcence has been thought to afford a good fpecific 

 diftinftion, and in fome cafes it unqueftionably does. Its 

 direftion is certainly very material, and has been applied by 

 the writer of this to difcriminate fpecies of Mentha, as it 

 has by Dr. Roth to eftablifti diftinft fpecies of Myofotit, 

 But the quantity of hairinefs on a plant is very variable, and 

 can hardly be faid to mark even a variety. A perfeftly 

 fmooth wild plant of Mentha hirfata, the calyx and flower- 

 ftalk excepted, being traofplanted into a garden, proved as 

 hairy all over as any of its brethren, the very next feafon. 

 On the fubjeA of the fpecific charafters, as oppofed to 

 mere varieties, we have already been fufficiently explicit, 

 under the head Species of Plants, nor need we here add 

 any further illuftrations. 



Some botanical writers, even of the prefent day, are 

 curious to mark varieties under each fpecies. This may on 

 fome occafions, and in gardening books, be ufeful ; but if 

 their fpecific diftinftions be well founded, each variety will 

 of itfelf fall into its proper place. To dwell upon them is 

 a trifling ftudy, except fo far as their different qualities may 

 lead to any praftical utility ; or their various origins and 

 changes, to any phyfiological inftruftion. With the latter 

 intention, the ingenious Mr. R. Brown has, for fome time 

 pail, been attentive to every ftrange deformity or mon- 



flrofity, 



