30S On tlie Variegation of Plants. 



nectedwith, disease or debility of any kind. But the?amein- 

 ferencemust not be drawn respecting other variegated plants; 

 for variegation itself appears to consist of several distinct 

 kinds. The leaves of a variety of the common cabbage are 

 often seen, in the cottage garden, curiously tinged with dif- 

 ferent shades of red and purple, like the leaves of the vines 

 which I have described : but in the cabbage these colours 

 combine and melt into each other, whereas in the vines the 

 distinct colours are separated by well defined lines. The co- 

 lours of the cabbage are transferred to its offspring, which is 

 perfectly hardy and vigorous. 



The spotted lettuce must also be classed with variegated 

 plants, and the offspring of this is as hardy as those of other 

 varieties : but the most common kind of variegation, in 

 which the leaves are variously striped with white and yellow, 

 though not the offspring, as some writers have imagined, 

 of disease, is, however, closely connected with some degree 

 of debility ; possibly owing to the imperfect action of light, 

 on all such parts of the leaves as are either white or yellow. 

 For I have observed that variegaled hollies are less patient of 

 shade than such as are wholly green ; and I have never seen 

 any plants, the leaves of which are wholly white or yellow, 

 that continued to live beyond a single season. A variegated 

 plant of the raspberry, which sprang from seed in my garden, 

 became wholly white in the third year ; but it perished in 

 the succeeding winter, and I should be disposed to conclude 

 that plants whose leaves are entirely white or yellow, cannot 

 long survive; but that Du Hamei* has described a variety 

 cf the peach tree, of which he says, " son bois, sesfeuilles, 

 ses fleurs, et son fruit, tant exterieurement qu'interieure- 

 ment, sont tout a fait blancs." This variety is at present, 

 I believe, wholly unknown to our gardeners; and I suspec^ 

 that it was always a debilitated plant, and that it in conse- 

 quence exists no more. I am, &c, 



Thomas Andrew Knight. 



* la hi3 Treatise on Trees, — Article Peach Tree. 



XLVI. Ex- 



