Chap. I. UNCONSCIOUS SELECTION. 37 



at their first appearance as distinct varieties, and whether 

 or not two or more species or races have become 

 blended together by crossing, may plainly be recognised 

 in the increased size and beauty which we now see in the 

 varieties of the heartsease, rose, pelargonium, dahlia, and 

 other plants, when compared with the older varieties or 

 with then parent-stocks. No one would ever expect to 

 get a first-rate heartsease or dahlia from the seed of a 

 wild plant. No one would expect to raise a first-rate 

 melting pear from the seed of the wild pear, though 

 he might succeed from a poor seedling growing wild, 

 if it had come from a garden-stock. The pear, though 

 cultivated in classical times, appears, from Pliny's de- 

 scription, to have been a fruit of very inferior quality. 

 I have seen great surprise expressed in horticultural works 

 at the wonderful skill of gardeners, in having produced 

 such splendid results from such poor materials ; but the 

 art, I cannot doubt, has been simple, and, as far as the 

 final result is concerned, has been followed almost un- 

 consciously. It has consisted in always cultivating the 

 best known variety, sowing its seeds, and, when a slightly 

 better variety has chanced to appear, selecting it, and 

 so onwards. But the gardeners of the classical period, 

 who cultivated the best pear they could procure, never 

 thought what splendid fruit we should eat ; though we 

 owe our excellent fruit, in some small degree, to their 

 having naturally chosen and preserved the best varieties 

 they could anywhere find. 



A large amount of change in our cultivated plants, 

 thus slowly and unconsciously accumulated, explains, as 

 I believe, the well-known fact, that in a vast number of 

 cases we cannot recognise, and therefore do not know, 

 the wild parent-stocks of the plants which have been 

 longest cultivated in our flower and kitchen gardens. 

 If it has taken centuries or thousands of years to improve 



