332 



FRUITS. 



(Jiup. X. 



CHAPTEE X. 



PLANTS continued — FRUITS — ORNAMENTAL TREES — FLOWERS. 



FRUITS. — GKAPES — VAEY IN ODD AND TRIFLING PARTICULARS. MULBERRY. 



THE ORANGE GROUP — SINGULAR RESULTS FROM CROSSING. PEACH AND NECTA- 

 RINE — BUD-VARIATION — ANALOGOUS VARIATION — RELATION TO THE ALMOND. 

 APRICOT. PLUMS — VARIATION IN THEIR STONES. CHERRIES — SIN- 

 GULAR VARIETIES OF. APPLE. PEAR. STRAWBERRY — INTERBLENDING 



OF THE ORIGINAL FORMS. GOOSEBERRY — STEADY INCREASE IN SIZE OF THE 



FRUIT — VARIETIES OF. WALNUT. NUT. ■ CUCURBIT ACEO US PLANTS 



WONDERFUL VARIATION OF. 



OKNAMENTAL TKEES — their variation in degree and kind — ash-tree 



— > SCOTCH-FIR — HAWTHORN. 

 FLOWERS — MULTIPLE ORIGIN OF MANY KINDS — VARIATION IN CONSTITUTIONAL 



PECULIARITIES — KIND OF VARIATION. ROSES — SEVERAL SPECIES CULTIVATED. 



PANSY. DAHLIA. HYACINTH, HISTORY AND VARIATION OF. 



The Vine ( Vitis vinifera). — The best authorities consider all our grapes as 

 the descendants of one species which now grows wild in western Asia, 

 which grew during the Bronze-age wild in Italy, 1 and which has recently 

 been found fossil in a tufaceous deposit in the south of France. 2 Some 

 authors, however, entertain much doubt about the single parentage of our 

 cultivated varieties, owing to the number of semi-wild forms found in 

 Southern Europe, especially as described by Clemente, 3 in a forest in Spain ; 

 but as the grape sows itself freely in Southern Europe, and as several 

 of the chief kinds transmit their characters by seed, 4 whilst others are 

 extremely variable, the existence of many different escaped forms could 

 hardly fail to occur in countries where this plant has been cultivated from 

 the remotest antiquity. That the vine varies much when propagated by 

 seed, we may infer from the largely increased number of varieties since 

 the earlier historical records. New hot-house varieties are produced 

 almost every year; for instance, 5 a golden-coloured variety has been 

 recently raised in England from a black grape without the aid of a cross. 



1 Heer, ' Pflanzen der Pfablbauten,' 

 1866, s. 28. 



2 Alph. De Candolle, 'Geograph. 

 Bot.,' p. 872 ; Dr. A. Targioni-Tozzetti, 

 in 'Jour. Hort. Soc.,' vol. ix. p. 133. 

 For the fossil vine found by Dr. G, 

 Planchon, see ' Nat. Hist. Keview,' 

 1865, April, p. 224. 



3 Godron, 'De l'Espece,' torn. ii. p. 

 100. 



4 See an account of M. Vibert's ex- 

 periments, by Alex. Jordan, in ' Mem. 

 de l'Acad. de Lyon,' torn, ii., 1852, p. 

 108. 



5 ' Gardener's Chronicle,' 1864, p. 

 488. 



